324 THE CROSSING, AC, OF CATTLE, ET AL. 



size, and their hoofs and legs are well developed by- 

 exercise, which aids also the growth of all the features 

 to which these are correlated. The close interbreed- 

 ing is manifest, for it is probable, that one dynasty of 

 autrocratic bulls, has ever been dominant. 



Darwin remarks that, of late, it has been discovered, 

 that they are bad breeders. But, this was to be ex- 

 pected, ultimately ; for, it was natural, that such close 

 interbreeding, for 500 years, within a breed, of late 

 kept down to the number of fifty, would eventually 

 augment the evil due to those slight defects of struct- 

 ure, which are implied by the very capacity, of man, 

 to discriminate between the individuals. Darwin con- 

 trasts their alleged, present, bad breeding, with the fer- 

 tility of the wild herds of South America. But, the 

 individuals of the wild herds of South America, oc- 

 casionally repair their slight deficiencies, in structure, 

 by intercrossing with other individuals, possessing 

 slight, positive differences, due to their being reared, 

 under slightly different conditions. 



The principle, that animals, but little defective in 

 proportion, display, when interbred, the evil of the % 

 little defects they have, by means of decrease in size, 

 is confirmed by what is known of these half-wild 

 Cattle. Darwin says (p. 149, Vol. ii, Animals and 

 Plants &c): 



" The decrease in size, from ancient times, in the 

 Chillingham and Hamilton cattle (wild), must have 

 been prodigious, for Professor Riitimeyer has shown 

 that they are almost certainly the descendants of the 

 gigantic Bos primigenius." 



