40 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 



tinguish a group of animals possessing qualities 

 which are not common to all animals of the 

 same species, and which peculiarities have be- 

 come so firmly established that they are uni- 

 formly transmitted by heredity. Thus, we have 

 the Shetland ponies, a breed of horses possess- 

 ing all the general characteristics of the species 

 to which they belong, but especially distin- 

 guished from other breeds by their diminutive 

 size; and the Devons, a breed of cattle uni- 

 formly of a deep red color, and possessing 

 other distinctive features that are not uniform- 

 ly found in any other breed of cattle. 



It will be observed that these divisions, from 

 first to last, are more or less arbitrary; and, 

 as it is impossible to define exactly the point 

 where the mineral kingdom leaves off and the 

 vegetable kingdom begins, or to distinguish pos- 

 itively the line of demarcation between vegetar 

 ble and animal life, so throughout the entire 

 animal kingdom the various divisions or classes 

 approach each other by almost imperceptible 

 gradations, until in many cases it is impossible 

 to locate the dividing line. This is especially 

 true of breeds. We may assume any standard 

 that our fancy may dictate, as the color or 

 texture of the hair; the shape or size of any 

 particular part of the body, as the head or the 

 ear; any particular function, as the quantity 

 or quality of the milk in cattle; peculiarities 



