&C, OF PIOEONS AND FOWLS. 255 



obvious inference's, and with each, gratuitously to 

 attempt to cancel the other, is to perform a feat, never 

 before surpassed by the most dextrous of intellectual 

 jugglers. 



Darwin says (p. 143, Vol. ii): 



" It should, however, be clearly understood, that the 

 advantage of close-interbreeding, as far as the reten- 

 tion of characters is concerned, is indisputable, and 

 often outweighs the evil of a slight loss of constitu- 

 tional vigor." 



The expression " as far as the retention of characters 

 is concerned," shows, that he means, that when a 

 breeder is developing one lost or reduced, character 

 alone, in a variety, in order to secure the dominance 

 of that character, and the suppression or reduction of 

 the other characters, it is necessaiy and desirable, to 

 breed it closely with individuals possessing the same 

 abnormal, or monstrous structure. He frequently re- 

 iterates an injunction of his, to breed from the "best" 

 animals; when it is apparent, to every one who enter- 

 tains the idea of reversion, even for an instant, that, 

 with varieties in whose species there are many other 

 varieties with positive peculiarities, those individuals, 

 which are intimated to be the "best," are the ones 

 in which disproportionate development invites the 

 greatest evils, from close-interbreeding; — and, they 

 are the ones which are really the more degenerate, 

 the further the development of the special excellence 

 of each, is pushed, because the proportion of the char- 

 acters is thus marred. 



With varieties, such as those of the Pigeon, and of 



