€iiap. XXI. NATURAL SELECTION. 225 



" each generation was inferior to the preceding one ; and when 

 " the spring was severe, seldom more than two- thirds of the 

 " lambs, survived the ravages of the storms." ! So with the 

 mountain cattle of North Wales and the Hebrides, it has been 

 found that they could not withstand being crossed with the larger 

 and more delicate lowland breeds. Two French naturalists, in 

 describing the horses of Circassia, remark that, subjected as 

 they are to extreme vicissitudes of climate, having to search 

 for scanty pasture, and exposed to constant clanger from wolves, 

 the strongest and most vigorous alone survive. 2 



Every one must have been struck with the surpassing grace, 

 strength, and vigour of the Game-cock, with its bold and con- 

 fident air, its long, yet firm neck, compact body, powerful and 

 •closely pressed wings, muscular thighs, strong beak massive at 

 the base, dense and sharp spurs set low on the legs for 

 delivering the fatal blow, and its compact, glassy, and mail-like 

 plumage serving as a defence. Now the English game-cock has 

 not only been improved during many years by man's careful 

 selection, but in addition, as Mr. Tegetmeier has remarked, 3 by 

 a kind of natural selection, for the strongest, most active and 

 courageous birds have stricken down their antagonists in the 

 cockpit, generation after generation, and have subsequently 

 served as the progenitors of their kind. 



In Great Britain, in former times, almost every district had 

 its own breed of cattle and sheep ; " they were indigenous to 

 " the soil, climate, and pasturage of the locality on which they 

 " grazed : they seemed to have been formed for it and by it." 4 

 But in this case we are quite unable to disentangle the effects 

 of the direct action of the conditions of life, — of use or habit— of 

 natural selection— and of that kind of selection which we have 

 seen is occasionally and unconsciously followed by man even 

 during the rudest periods of history. 



Let us now look to the action of natural selection on special 

 characters. Although nature is difficult to resist, yet man often 

 strives against her power, and sometimes, as we shall see, with 



1 Quoted by Youatt on Sheep, p. f ag es, in 'Bull. Soc. Accliinat.,' torn. 



325. See also Youatt on Cattle, pp. 62, viii., 1861, p 311 

 69< 3 ' The Poultry Book,' 1866, p. 123. 



- MM. Lherbette and De Quatre- * Youatt on Sheep, p. 312. 



VOL. II. n 



