202 



SELECTION. 



Chap. XX. 



at 



ly period "some 



of the best principles of breeding 



] 1 1 55 T, , P 



must have been steadily and long pursued." It was ordered, 

 according to Moses, that " Thou shalt not let thy cattle gendei 

 with a diverse kind ; " but mules were purchased, 32 so that at this 



•ly period other nations must have crossed 



and 



It is said 33 that Erichthonius, some generations before the Trojan 

 war, had many brood-mares, " which by his care and judgment 

 in the choice of stallions produced a breed of horses superior 



Homer (Book v.) speaks 



any in the surroundin 



of iEneas's horses as bred from mares which were put 

 steeds of Laomedon. Plato, in his ' Eepublic,' says to Glaucus 



I see that you raise at your house a great many dogs for 



« 



chase 



Do 



you 



care about breeding and pairing them 



Among animals of good blood, are ther 



which 



superior to the 



not always some 



To which Glaucus 



in the affirmativ^ 



Alexander the Great selected the finest 



Indian cattle to send to Macedonia to improve the breed. 35 

 According to Pliny, 36 King Pyrrhus had an especially valuable 

 breed of oxen; and he did not suffer the bulls and cows to 

 come together till four years old, 



deg 



Virgil 



to 



his Geor 



that the breed might not 



(lib. iii.), g 



advice as any modern agriculturist could do, carefully to select 

 the breeding stock; "to note the tribe, the lineage, and the 



sire ; whom to reserve for husband of the herd 



brand 



progeny ;— to select sheep of the purest white, and to examine 

 if their tongues are swarthy. We have seen that the Komans 



kept pedi 



of their 



pig 



and this would have been 



them 



3 proceeding had not great care been taken in breeding 

 Columella gives detailed instructions about breeding 



fowls: "Let the breeding hens therefore be of 



" a robust body, square-built, full-breasted, with large heads, 

 " with upright and bright-red combs. Those are believed to be 

 " the best bred which have five toes." 37 According to Tacitus, 

 the Celts attended to the races of their domestic animals; 



32 Volz, « JBeitrage zur Kulturge- 

 schichte,' 1852, s. 47. 



33 Mitford's ' History of Greece,' vol. 

 i. p. 73. 



34 Dr. Dally, translated in « Anthropo- 



logical Review,' May 1864, p. 101. 



35 Volz, « Beitrage,' &c, 1852, s. 80. 



36 ' History of the World,' ch. 45. 



37 'Gardener's Chronicle,' 1848, p 



323. 



