148 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 
genuine species. Although on the whole it is more like its 
mother (rabbit), still in the formation of the ears ‘and of the 
hind-legs, it possesses distinct qualities of its father (hare). 
Its flesh has an excellent taste, rather resembling that of a 
hare, though the colour is more like that of a rabbit. But 
the hare (Lepus timidus) and the rabbit (Lepus cuniculus) 
are two species of the genus Lepus, so different that no 
systematic zoologist will recognize them as varieties of one 
species. Both species, moreover, live in such different ways, 
and in their wild state entertain so great an ‘aversion 
towards one another, that they do not pair so long as they 
are left free. If, however, the newly-born young ones of 
both species are brought up together, this aversion is not 
developed; they pair with one another and produce the 
Lepus Darwinia. 
Another remarkable instance of the crossing of different 
species (where the two species belong even to different 
genera !) is furnished by the fruitful hybrids of sheep and 
goats which have for a long time been bred in Chili for in- 
dustrial purposes. On what unessential circumstances in 
the sexual mingling the fertility of the different species 
depend, is shown by the fact that he-goats and sheep in 
their mingling produce fruitful hybrids, while the ram and 
she-goat pair very rarely, and then without result. The 
phenomena of hybridism to which undue importance has. 
been erroneously attributed are thus utterly unmeaning, so. 
far as the idea of species is concerned. The breeding of 
hybrids does not enable us, any more than other phenomena, 
thoroughly to distinguish cultivated races from wild species ; 
and this circumstance is of the greatest importance in the 
Theory of Selection. 
