256 ZOOLOGY. 



Even in our own times, guided by interest, men have thus 

 formed new varieties of sheep, oxen, and horses. To Bake- 

 well, for example, we owe the variety of sheep called New 

 Leicester, remarkable for their fattening qualities. The fore- 

 quarters of the large Wurtemburg variety of sheep, as a 

 valuable sort for the market butcher, weigh from 52 to 55 

 per 100 of the whole weight ; in the New Leicester or Dishley 

 breed, the weight amounts to 70 or even 75. It must be 

 known to all how the quality of the wool is improved by 

 crossing with the merinos of Spain.* 



Finally, the various breeds of horses prove these facts 

 respecting the influence of man over the domestic races of 

 animals. Our agricultural breeds of horses owe in part their 

 stature, their forms, and qualities to the race from which 

 they have sprung : but the circumstances in which they are 

 placed when young exert an influence over them no less great. 

 The young resembles the mother more than the father in 

 respect of the size and height ; whilst it resembles the father 

 more as regards the feet, speed, courage, (fec- 

 it is essential therefore, in breeding, to select those indi- 

 viduals only which possess the requisite qualities, rejecting 

 their opposites ; or, in other words, to breed from those having 

 opposite qualities : in time the new forms become hereditary 

 and general. To attention to these matters the Arab horses 

 owe their grand qualities. The noble breed they call kochlani 

 has its purity secured by authentic legal attestations, during 

 a series of four ages, and the known genealogy of several 

 of these fine animals extends to two thousand years. The 

 English race-horse owes its qualities to a mixture of the Arab 

 stallion with the indigenous mares of England; hence its 

 stature and astonishing rapidity. The abundance and quality 

 of the food, the nature of the climate, the daily cares bestowed 

 on the horse, influence the race much more than is generally 

 supposed : as a proof of this, we may notice the rapidity with 

 which the finest English horses degenerate in certain locali- 

 ties, as in the studs of Kopschan on the borders of Moravia. 

 But the same fact may be observed nearer home. If two 

 colts of the same breed, of Lorraine for example, be placed, 

 one in Flanders the other in Normandy, instead of retaining 



* It was in 1776 that the superintendent of finances, Daniel Trudiane, 

 attempted first the introduction of the merino into France, aiid it is to 

 Daubenton, the collaborates of Buffon, that is due the success of the enter- 

 prise. 



