210 SELECTION. Chap. XXI 



" preceding one ; and when the spring was severe, seldom 

 '•' more than two-thirds of the lambs survived the ravages of 

 " the storms." l So with the mountain cattle of North Wales 

 and the Hebrides, it has been found that they could not 

 withstand being crossed with the larger and more delicate 

 lowland breeds. Two French naturalists, in describing the 

 horses of Circassia, remark that, subjected as they are to 

 extreme vicissitudes of climate, having to search for scanty 

 pasture, and exposed to constant danger from wolves, the 

 strongest and most vigorous alone survive. 2 



Every one must have been struck with the surpassing 

 grace, strength, and vigour of the Game-cock, with its bold 

 and confident air, its long, yet firm neck, compact body, 

 powerful and closely pressed wings, muscular thighs, strong- 

 beak massive at the base, dense and sharp spurs set low on 

 the legs for delivering the fatal blow, and its compact, glossy, 

 and mail-like plumage serving as a defence. Now the En- 

 glish game-cock has not only been improved during many 

 years by man's careful selection, but in addition, as Mr. 

 Tegetmeier has remarked, 3 by a kind of natural selection, for 

 the strongest, most active and courageous birds have stricken 

 down their antagonists in the cockpit, generation after gene- 

 ration, and have subsequently served as the progenitors of 

 their race. The same kind of double selection has come into 

 play with the carrier pigeon, for during their training the 

 inferior birds fail to return home and are lost, so that even 

 without selection by man only the superior birds propagate 

 their race. 



In Great Britain, in former times, almost everv district 

 had its own breed of cattle and sheep ; " they were indigenous 

 " to the soil, climate, and pasturage of the locality on which 

 •' they grazed : they seemed to have been formed for it and 

 " by it." 4 But in this case we are quite unable to disentangle 

 the effects of the direct action of the conditions of life, — of 

 use or habit — of natural selection — and of that kind of 



1 Quoted by Youatt on Sheep, p. viii., 1861, p. 3-11. 



325. See also Youatt on Cattle, pp. 3 'The Poultry Book,' 1866, p. 123. 



62, 69. Mr. Tegetmeier, ' The Hoiuing or Car- 



2 MM. Lherbetta and De Quatre- rier Pigeon,' 1871, pp. 45-68. 

 fages, in ' Bull. Soc. d'Acclimat.,' torn. 4 Youatt on Sheep, p. 312. 



