WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 



attention, they have attained a perfectly wild state, yet 

 nevertheless exhibit the stamp of domestic variation and 

 a tendency to return, under proper treatment, to their 

 former condition. We need only point to the horses of 

 South America, to the sheep and cattle in Australia, and 

 to the pigs and cats in New Zealand, in support of what 

 we advance. 



China must be regarded as the country the people of 

 which have succeeded in obtaining and breeding domestic 

 animals as an article of food far in advance of any other 

 nation. They have the most prolific sheep that produce 

 four and, sometimes, five at a birth, geese that lay and 

 hatch all the year round, and pigs that produce four or 

 five-and-twenty at a time, most of which, under the watch- 

 ful care of these thrifty and careful people, are reared. 

 We may naturally infer that those animals most subject 

 to variation and most capable of conforming to changed 

 conditions, were those selected for domestication, and that 

 as a probable result the wild ones, belonging to the species 

 that were taken under the protection of man, became 

 amalgamated with the semi-domesticated individuals, 

 until they ceased to exist as wild animals ; hence the 

 present difficulty of fixing or determining upon the wild 

 origin of nearly all our domestic animals. Among deer, 

 the reindeer is the only species that has shown a capability 

 of being domesticated, and in a wild state it exhibits a 

 wonderful amount of variation, not only in size, but in 

 colour and habits, therefore clearly indicating the success 

 that has been attributed to the Laplander, but which is, 

 in all probability, far more ancient than this race of people 

 — -witness the very numerous remains of this animal's 

 bones, associated with the traces of man, found in the 

 ancient caverns of Mid Europe. There is every reason to 

 believe that the reindeer will be preserved in a domestic 



284 



