226 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PLA Y 



climates. The ungenial, sullen temper of the wild 

 ass, repeated in the domestic breeds, is a more marked 

 instance of the effect of the personal factor in render- 

 ing domestication a practical failure. The measure 

 in which slight differences of temperament affect 

 the progress and development of birds under domestica- 

 tion, is seen in a marked degree in the case of the 

 peacock, which would be far more commonly kept 

 and reared were it not quarrelsome and dangerous 

 to other poultry, and of the guinea-fowl, which 

 though fairly friendly with the other members of the 

 poultry-yard, never quite loses its fear of man, and 

 is therefore less favoured by him in return. There 

 is no reason why the game-birds should not have 

 been domesticated equally with the fowl and the 

 pigeon, except that the greater number of pheasants 

 in Asia, and the bustards and florikins in Africa, 

 seem, even when artificially reared for several genera- 

 tions, incapable of acquiescing in the familiar presence 

 and good offices of man. In cases where obvious 

 similarity of form and habit exist between species 

 which have been domesticated and others which have 

 remained wild, or have been imperfectly trained, 

 c incompatibility of temperament ' more often than 

 not supplies the reason for their remaining outside 

 the ranks of the reclaimed. The causes of these 

 inbred differences are unexplained, but the facts are 



