296 



VAEIATION OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS. 



[Ch. XXXVI. 



propriety been regarded as a mere modification of a ha 

 which may have been nseful to a wild race accustomed 



p-ame 



aim 



of the 



may 



The faculty 

 be regarded as more 

 inexplicable and less easily referable to the instinctive 

 passions of the species. M. Majendie, says a French writer 

 in a recently published memoir^ having learnt that there was 

 a race of dogs in England which stopped and brought back 

 game of their own accord^ procured a pair^ and^ having 

 obtained a whelp from them^ kept it constantly under his 

 eyes^ until he had an opportunity of assuring himself that 

 without having received any instruction, and on the very 

 first day that it was carried to the chase, it brought back 



game with as much steadiness as dogs which had been 

 schooled into the same manoeuvre by means of the whip and 



collar. 



The power 



man 



selection, has been by no means confined to the mammalia 

 and birds. The Chinese have kept gold fish {Cyprimis atira- 

 tus) for ornament or curiosity 



from 



remote 



it is suspected that the golden colour is not characteristic 

 of the species in a state of nature. Yarrell mentions that 

 descriptions and coloured drawings of no less than 89 varie- 

 ties have been given by Sauvigny, some destitute of dorsal 

 fins, others having a double anal fin or a triple tail. Of 



it is difficult 

 monstrosity. 



may 



called monstrosities, for 



om 



here again that selection is capable of producing distinct 

 races in the class of insects, as in tlie case of the common 

 silk-moth {Bomhyx mori), which is believed to have been do- 

 It 



era. 



mesticated in China nearly 3,000 years before our 



was brought to Constantinople in the sixth century, whence 



it was carried into Italy, and in the year 1494 into France."^ 



*v 



\ 





* Godron 'De I'Esp^ce/ 1859, torn. i. p. 460; and see Darwin *0n Varia- 

 tion/ vol. i. p. 300. 



