ZOOLOGICAL POSITION AND STRUCTURE 35 



tween the goat and the ewe, but that they are the 

 results of numerous crossings, among which sheep 

 have played the predominant part ; this being equi- 

 valent to saying that chabins are not hybrids, but 

 a special breed of sheep. It would, indeed, seem 

 that where the Chilian shepherds are desirous of 

 improving the quality of the fleeces of their flocks 

 they introduce, after about two or three generations, 

 a fresh strain of ram-blood by crossing the male 

 chabins with their ewes. 



" ' If it is required to define chabins we should 

 say that they form a special breed of sheep, into 

 which has been introduced from time to time a 

 strain of goat, which does not, however, prevent 

 them from continually reverting to the ovine type 

 in the most evident manner. The chabin, then, 

 cannot be regarded as an intermediate type between 

 sheep and goats.' 



" This I regard as a somewhat lame and impotent 

 conclusion. Chabins are either hybrids or they are 

 not ; if they have any — even the slightest — strain 

 of caprine blood, they are hybrids, and therefore to 

 a certain extent intermediate between their respec- 

 tive parents." 



If interbreeding really exist — and that it does 

 at least occasionally occur seems certain, it is, of 

 course, a strong argument in favour of the view 

 that sheep and goats should be included in one and 

 the same genus ; and if the principle inculcated in 



