BRITISH DOMESTIC ANIMALS. wiii 



Domestic Animals of Great Britain. 



The wild animals could not have found their way, unaided by man, into Britain 

 after the time that it was severed from the Continent, and their advent, therefore, must 

 date back before that severance took place. It is clear, also, that the more obnoxious 

 of them have been extirpated by the hand of man. The domesticated animals, on the 

 other hand, have increased in numbers, and branched off into varieties in exact propor- 

 tion to the amount of trouble bestowed by man on the selection of their different points. 

 The rapidity with which they have changed has rendered it almost impossible to trace 

 any of the known varieties far back by their external form. The dogs of Elizabeth's 

 time would present almost the appearance of a different species 1 as compared with those 

 with which we are familiar, and if the horse and the cattle have changed less it is due to 

 their ministry to the use, rather than the caprice, of man. 



The genealogy of the domestic hog has been ascertained by MM. Riitimeyer, Nathusius, 



and Schiitz, with great accuracy, and Dr. Darwin 3 has summed up the evidence with 



judicial impartiality. It is traced, by these observers, to two distinct strains, the one 



being the wild boar, which is found throughout the temperate and hot regions of Europe, 



Asia, and in North Africa, and that which is termed by Nathusius the Sus Indica, of 



Pallas, and which is known commonly as the small, short-legged, and short-headed pig of 



Siam and China. The former, or the Sus scro/a group, strongly resembles the wild 



boar, but the skull is higher and broader, and the hinder part of the head is more 



upright. These two strains have been so profoundly affected by crossing that their 



dissimilarity is being rapidly obliterated, the resultant being more valuable than either of 



the extreme forms. According to Nathusius the infusion of one thirty-second or even one 



sixty-fourth of the blood of the Sus Indica is sufficient to modify the shape of a skull 



of Sus scro/a. The probable derivation of these two domestic forms will be 



discussed in the following chapter. The present breeds are the result of a careful 



selection. 



The earliest mention of the domestic cat in Britain is to be found in the laws of 



Howel Dha, 3 in which the price of a blind kitten is laid at one penny, of a kitten with 



its eyes open at twopence, and of a cat perfect in all its faculties, and a good mouser, at 



fourpence. The penalty of killing the king's cat is assessed at eightpence. These laws 



were probably codified at the end of the tenth or in the eleventh century, although many 



of the enactments are probably older. It would therefore follow that the animal was 



known in Wales before the time of the first Crusades, which is the generally accepted 



1 Charles Darwin, 'Variations under Domestication,' vol. i, chapter 1. 



2 ' Riitimeyer, ' Fauna der Pfahbauten.' Nathusius, ' Schweinsschadel — Die Racen der Schweines.' 

 Darwin, 'Variation,' vol. i, chapter iii. 



3 ' Leges Wallise, or Ancient Laws and Institutes of AVales.' 



