Chap. i. Unconscious Selection. 2 J 



clopsedia. Explicit rules are laid down by some of the Roman 

 classical writers. From passages in Genesis, it is clear that the 

 colour of domestic animals was at that early period attended to. 

 Savages now sometimes cross their dogs with wild canine animals r 

 to improve the breed, and they formerly did so, as is attested by 

 passages in Pliny. The savages in South Africa match their 

 draught cattle by colour, as do some of the Esquimaux their teams 

 of dogs. Livingstone states that good domestic breeds are highly 

 valued by the negroes in the interior of Africa who have not associ- 

 ated with Europeans. Some of these facts do not show actual 

 selection, but they show that the breeding of domestic animals was 

 carefully attended to in ancient times, and is now attended to by 

 the lowest savages. It would, indeed, have been a strange fact, had, 

 attention not been paid to breeding, for the inheritance of good and 1 

 bad qualities is so obvious. 



Unconscious Selection. 



At the present time, eminent breeders try by methodical selection,, 

 with a distinct object in view, to make a new strain or sub-breed r 

 t-uperior to anything of the kind in the country. But, for our pur- 

 pose, a form of Selection, which may be called Unconscious, and- 

 which results from every one trying to possess and breed from the 

 best individual animals, is more important. Thus, a man who 

 intends keeping pointers naturally tries to get as good dogs as he - 

 can, and afterwards breeds from his own best dogs, but he has no 

 wish or expectation of permanently altering the breed. Neverthe- 

 less we may infer that this process, continued during centuries, 

 would improve and modify any breed, in the same way as Bake- 

 well, Collins, &c., by this very same process, only carried on more 

 methodically, did greatly modify, even during their lifetimes, the- 

 forms and qualities of their cattle. Slow and insensible changes of 

 this kind can never be recognised unless actual measurements or 

 careful drawings of the breeds in question have been made long a^o, 

 which may serve for comparison. In some cases, however, un- 

 changed, or but little changed individuals of the same breed exist 

 in less civilised districts, where the breed has been less improved. 

 There is reason to believe that King Charles's spaniel has been un- 

 consciously modified to a large extent since the time of that monarch. 

 Some highly competent authorities are convinced that the setter is 

 directly derived from the spaniel, and has probably been slowly 

 altered from it. It is known that the English pointer has been 

 greatly changed within the last century, and in this case the change 

 Has, it is believed, been chiefly effected by crosses with the foxhound ;; 



