Chap. XVIII. CHANGED CONDITIONS. 161 



young, and were at the same time useful, they would be at once domesti- 

 cated. If, when their masters migrated into other countries, they were in 

 addition found capable of withstanding various climates, they would be 

 still more valuable ; and it appears that the animals which breed readily 

 in captivity can generally withstand different climates. Some few domes- 

 ticated animals, such as the reindeer and camel, offer an exception to this 

 rule. Many of our domesticated animals can bear with undiminished 

 fertility the most unnatural conditions ; for instance, rabbits, guinea-pigs, 

 and ferrets breed in miserably confined hutches. Few European dogs 

 of any kind withstand without degeneration the climate of India; but 

 as long as they survive, they retain, as I hear from Dr. Falconer, their 

 fertility ; so it is, according to Dr. Daniell, with English dogs taken to 

 Sierra Leone. The fowl, a native of the hot jungles of India, becomes 

 more fertile than its parent-stock in every quarter of the world, until we 

 advance as far north as Greenland and Northern Siberia, where this bird 

 will not breed. Both fowls and pigeons, which I received during the 

 autumn direct from Sierra Leone, were at once ready to couple. 66 I have, 

 also, seen pigeons breeding as freely as the common kinds within a year 

 after their importation from the Upper Nile. The guinea-fowl, an abori- 

 ginal of the hot and dry deserts of Africa, whilst living under our damp 

 and cool climate, produces a large supply of eggs. 



Nevertheless, our domesticated animals under new conditions occa- 

 sionally show signs of lessened fertility. Eoulin asserts that in the hot 

 valleys of the equatorial Cordillera sheep are not fully fecund; 67 and 

 according to Lord Somerville, 68 the merino-sheep which he imported from 

 Spain were not at first perfectly fertile. It is said 69 that mares brought 

 up on dry food in the stable, and turned out to grass, do not at first breed. 

 The peahen, as we have seen, is said not to lay so many eggs in England 

 as in India. It was long before the canary-bird was fully fertile, and even 

 now first-rate breeding birds are not common. 70 In the hot and dry pro- 

 vince of Delhi, the eggs of the turkey, as I hear from Dr. Falconer, 

 though placed under a hen, are extremely liable to fail. According to 

 Eoulin, geese taken within a recent period to the lofty plateau of Bogota, 

 at first laid seldom, and then only a few eggs; of these scarcely a fourth 

 were hatched, and half the young birds died: in the second generation 

 they were more fertile; and when Eoulin wrote they were becoming as 



extremely fond of taming animals, and see Reaumur, 'Art de faire Eclorre,' &c, 



every young antelope was brought to 1749, p. 243 ; and Col. Sykes, in <Proc. 



him. Mr. Galton informs me that the Zoolog. Soc,' 1832, &c. With respect 



Damaras are likewise fond of keeping to the fowl not breeding in northern 



pets. Ihe Indians ol South America regions, see Latham's 'Hist, of Birds,' 



follow the same habit. Capt. Wilkes vol viii 1823 p 169 

 states that the Polynesians of the «7 < Me ' m . ^/divers Savans, Acad. 



Samoan Islands tamed pigeons; and des Sciences,' torn, vi., 1835, p. 347. 

 the New Zealanders, as Mr. Mantell es Youatt on Sheep> p 181> 



informs me, kept various kinds of 6 » J. Mills, ' Treatise on Cattle,' 1776 



birds. p< 72 



For analogous cases with the fowl, 7« Bechstein, ' Stubenvbge!,' s. 242. 



VOL. II. 



M 



