Chap. III. CROSSED SPECIES FERTILE. 83 



by nearly all palaeontologists as distinct species ; and it would 

 not be reasonable to change their denomination simply because 

 they are now found to be the parents of several domesticated 

 races. But what is of most importance for us, as showing that 

 they deserve to be ranked as species, is that they co-existed in 

 different parts of Europe during the same period, and yet kept 

 distinct. Their domesticated descendants, on the other hand 

 if not separated, cross with the utmost freedom and become 

 commingled. The several European breeds have so often been 

 crossed, both intentionally and unintentionally, that, if any 

 sterility ensued from such unions, it would certainly have been 

 detected. As zebus inhabit a distant and much hotter region, 

 and as they differ in so many characters from our European 

 cattle, I have taken pains to ascertain whether the two forms 

 are fertile when crossed. The late Lord Powis imported some 

 zebus and crossed them with common cattle in Shropshire ; 

 and I was assured by his steward that the cross-bred animals 

 were perfectly fertile with both parent-stocks. Mr. Blyth in- 

 forms me that in India hybrids, with various proportions of 

 either blood, are quite fertile ; and this can hardly fail to be 

 known, for in some districts 50 the two species are allowed to 

 breed freely together. Most of the cattle which were first 

 introduced into Tasmania were humped, so that at one time 

 thousands of crossed animals existed there ; and Mr. B. O'Neile 

 Wilson, M.A., writes to me from Tasmania that he has never 

 heard of any sterility having been observed. He himself 

 formerly possessed a herd of such crossed cattle, and all were 

 perfectly fertile ; so much so, that he cannot remember even 

 a single cow failing to calve. These several facts afford an 

 important confirmation of the Pallasian doctrine that the de- 

 scendants of species which when first domesticated would if 

 crossed probably have been in some degree sterile, become 

 perfectly fertile after a long course of domestication. In a 

 iuture chapter we shall see that this doctrine throws much light 

 on the difficult subject of Hybridism 



I have alluded to the cattle in Chillingham Park, which, 

 according to Eutnneyer, have been very little changed from 

 the Bos^mgemus type. This park is so ancient that it is 



50 Walther, 'Das Rindvieh/ 1817, s. 30. 



G 2 



