VARIATION UNDER DOMESTICATION. 123 



to feed on every substance which could possibly 

 be eaten. 



The ass and the cat have been domesticated 

 for many centuries, but vary very little, 

 whereas the bramble, the fruit of which in its 

 wild state is far more palatable than that of 

 the original stock of many of our choicest 

 garden productions, is very little cultivated 

 in our gardens, though one of the most 

 variable of all wild plants. Nor, when the 

 ordinary action of natural laws is sufficient 

 to account for the variation of domesti- 

 cated species, as well as of those existing 

 in a state of nature, is it reasonable to 

 suppose that extreme variability is necessarily 

 inseparable from, and peculiar to, domestica- 

 tion. 



It is more probable that every wild species, 

 if domesticated for a considerable time, would 

 prove itself to be far more variable under 

 domestication than in a state of nature. Those 

 domestic animals which do not vary much are 

 those which cannot easily be submitted to 

 restraint (as the cat) ; those which are kept in 

 comparatively small numbers (as the guinea- 

 fowl) ; and those which are of too little com- 



