iv VARIATION UNDER DOMESTICATION 101 



And it is not at all surprising that it should be so, since all 

 the species "were in a state of nature when first domesticated 

 or cultivated by man, and whatever variations occur must be 

 due to purely natural causes. Moreover, on comparing the 

 variations which occur in any one generation of domesticated 

 animals with those which we know to occur in wild animals, 

 we find no evidence of greater individual variation in the 

 former than in the latter. The results of man's selection are 

 more striking to us because we have always considered the 

 varieties of each domestic animal to be essentially identical, 

 while those which we observe in a wild state are held to be 

 essentially diverse. The greyhound and the spaniel seem 

 wonderful, as varieties of one animal produced by man's 

 selection ; while we think little of the diversities of the fox 

 and the wolf, or the horse and the zebra, because we have 

 been accustomed to look upon them as radically distinct 

 animals, not as the results of nature's selection of the 

 varieties of a common ancestor. 



