ORGANIC EVOLUTION 67 



pigeons have been evolved by human selection 

 during the past three or four thousand years from 

 the blue rock-doves which to-day inhabit the sea- 

 coast countries of Europe. 



What is true of pigeons is also true largely oi 

 most of the other races associated with man — of 

 cats, cattle, horses, sheep, swine, goats, fowls, 

 and the like. All varieties of the domestic 

 chicken — the clumsy Cochin with its feather- 

 duster legs, the tall and stately Spanish, the great- 

 crested Minorca, the Dorking with its matchless; 

 comb and wattle, the almost combless Polish, the 

 blue Andalusian, the gigantic Brahma, the tiny 

 Bantam, the Wyandottes in all colours (black, 

 white, buff, silver, and golden), the magnificent 

 Plymouth Rocks, and the exceedingly pugnacious 

 Game-cock — these and dozens of other varieties, 

 all flightless, have come from the jungle-bird 

 whose morning clarion still greets Aurora from 

 the wilds of distant India. The dog is a civilised 

 wolf, and the wild-boar is the progenitor of the 

 oleaginous swine. The Merino and South Down 

 breeds of sheep have come from the same stock in 

 the last century and a half. In 1790 a lamb was 

 born on the farm of Seth Wright in Massachusetts. 

 It had a long body and short, bowed legs. It was 

 noticed that this lamb could not follow the others 

 over the fences. The owner thought it would be 

 a good thing if all his sheep were like it. So he 

 selected it to breed from. Some of its offspring 

 were like it, and some were like the ordinary 

 sheep. By continual selection of those with long 



5—2 



