CHAPTER XXVI 

 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 1 



The animals that we call domestic, while sometimes of kinds 

 and appearance very different from any wild animals that we 

 know, are yet certainly all descended from kinds that are or 

 were originally wild. There are wild pigs, wild goats, wild 

 doves, wild ducks, wild silk-worms. There are no wild dogs 

 nor probably any longer any true wild horses, but it is easy for 

 us to see from what wild animals our tame dogs and horses have 

 been derived. 



It is certain from the records of history, and from ancient 

 pictures and carvings, and still more ancient bones and relics, 

 that man has had domesticated animals for the last ten thou- 

 sand years. How long before that he made a practice of tam- 

 ing and using and perhaps breeding his animal companions of 

 pre-historic times we may never know. In the caves where 

 are found the bones and rude implements of early man, that 

 primitive man of the Glacial epoch, there are also found the 

 bones of various animals, but these seem to be the remains of 

 kinds that were either his victims or his conquerors in the raw 

 struggle for existence of those ancient times. However, when 

 the pre-historic Egyptians and Cretans emerged from the 

 Stone Age into the earliest light of history they appear with 

 cattle, sheep, donkeys and dogs already fully domesticated. 



Artificial Selection. The domestication of animals is the 

 result of several different factors. First, there may be the 

 simple capture and taming and using of individuals of a wild 

 species. Then comes the rearing in captivity of young of this 

 species, and the easier taming of these home-reared individuals 

 because of their earlier acquaintanceship with man. 



1 Most of this chapter is taken from Chapter XIX of "The Animals 

 and Man," by the senior author. 



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