VARIATION UNDER DOMESTICATION 63 



liion^ wMcb may be called Unc :)nscious, and which results — 

 from every one trying to possess and breed from the best 

 individual animals, is more important. Thus, a man who 

 intends keeping pointers naturally tries to get as good 

 dogs as he can, and afterward breeds from his own best 

 dogs, but he has no wish or expectation of permanently^ 

 altering the breed. Kevertheless we may infer that this 

 proc^.ss, continued during centuries, would improve and 

 modify any breed, in the same way as Bakewell, Collins, 

 etc., by this very same process, only carried on more 

 methodically, did greatly modify, even during their life- 

 times, the forms and qualities of their cattle. Slow and 

 insensible changes of this kind can never be recognized 

 unless actual measurements or careful drawings of the 

 breeds in question have been made long ago, which >may 

 serve for comparison. In some cases, however, un- 

 changed, or but little changed, individuals of the same 

 breed exist in less civilized districts, where the breed has 

 been less improved. There is reason to believe that King 

 Charles's spaniel has been unconsciously modified to a 

 large extent since the time of that monarch. Some highly 

 competent authorities are convinced that the setter is 

 directly derived from the spaniel, and has probably been 

 slowly altered from it. It is known that the English 

 pointer has been greatly changed within the last century, 

 and in this case the change has, it is believed, been 

 chiefly effected by crosses with the foxhound: but what 

 concerns us is, that the change has been effected uncon- 

 sciously and gradually, and yet so effectually that, though 

 the old Spanish pointer certainly came from Spain, Mr. 

 Borrow has not seen, as I am informed by him, any 

 native dog in Spain like our pointer. 



