iv CONDITIONS OF DOMESTICATION 163 



duced into Colombia was at first nearly sterile ; but 

 this condition does not last in most cases. It is 

 useless to try to domesticate animals which do not 

 multiply under domestication or captivity ; for even if 

 acquired characters are in general not inherited, it 

 is certainly true that the progeny of a wild species 

 is much more difficult to tame and domesticate 

 than that of the same species in the domestic state. 

 And if this hereditary transmission of the acquired 

 character of tameness did not exist, domestication 

 would prove impossible. In fact, domestication may 

 be more or less complete ; while some animals can 

 hardly revert to the wild condition, in many others 

 domestication has not existed long enough to dispel 

 all natural tendencies towards wild life. Such is the 

 case with the llama, the reindeer, the rabbit, goose, 

 duck, and some others, and many instances might be 

 given. Cornevin, for instance, has seen a flock of 

 geese, which for over thirty years had lived in the 

 same yard, arise in the air on seeing a flock of wild 

 geese overhead, join them, and fly away for ever. 



The foregoing conditions must be fulfilled when the 

 domestication of any species is contemplated, and we 

 know enough of many animals to be assured that the 

 number of our domesticated species might be easily 

 increased if we only took some care. 



As I have already said, the domestication of animals 



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