3 I PIGEONS. 



five-fingered persons, and the question naturally suggests itself — What would have 

 been the result of such marriage ? Reaumur narrates this case only as far as the 

 third generation. Certainly it would have been an exceedingly curious thing if we 

 could have traced this matter any further ; had the cousins intermarried, a six- 

 fingered variety of the human race might have been set up. 



" To show you that this supposition is by no means an unreasonable one, let me 

 now point out what took p>lace in the case of Seth Wright's sheep, where it 

 happened to be a matter of moment to him to obtain a breed or raise a flock of 

 sheep like that accidental variety that I have described — and I will tell you why. 

 In that part of Massachusetts where Seth Wright was living, the fields were 

 separated by fences, and the sheep, which were very active and robust, would 

 roam abroad, and without much difficulty jump over these fences into other 

 people's farms. As a matter of course, this exuberant activity on the part of the 

 sheep constantly gave rise to all sorts of quarrels, bickerings, and contentions 

 among the farmers of the neighbourhood ; so it occurred to Seth Wright, who 

 was, like his successors, more or less 'cute, that if he could get a stock of sheep 

 like those with the bandy legs, they would not be able to jump over the fences so 

 readily, and he acted upon that idea. He killed his old ram, and as soon as the 

 young one arrived at maturity, he bred altogether from it. The result was even 

 more striking than in the human experiment which I mentioned just now. 

 Colonel Humphreys testifies that it always happened that the offspring were either 

 pure Ancons or pure ordinary sheep ; that in no case was there any mixing of the 

 Ancons with the others. In consequence of this, in the course of a very few 

 years, the farmer was able to get a very considerable flock of this variety, and a 

 large number of them were spread throughout Massachusetts. Most unfor- 

 tunately, however — I suppose it was because they were so common — nobody took 

 enough notice of them to preserve their skeletons ; and although Colonel Hum- 

 phreys states that he sent a skeleton to the president of the Royal Society at 

 the same time that he forwarded his paper, I am afraid that the variety has 

 entirely disappeared ; for a short time after these sheep had become prevalent in 

 that district, the Merino sheep were introduced ; and as their wool was much more 

 valuable, and as they were a quiet race of sheep, and showed no tendency to 

 trespass or jump over fences, the Otter breed of sheep, the wool of which was 

 inferior to that of the Merino, was gradually allowed to die out. 



" You see that these facts illustrate perfectly well what may be done if you take 

 care to breed from stocks that are similar to each other. After having got a varia- 

 tion, if, by crossing a variation with the original stock, you multiply that variation, 

 and then take care to keep that variation distinct from the original stock, and make 

 them breed together, then you may almost certainly produce a race whose tendency 

 to continue the variation is exceedingly strong. 



" This is what is called 'selection;' and it is by exactly the same process as 

 that by which Seth Wright bred his Ancon sheep, that our breeds of cattle, dogs, 

 vnd fowls are obtained. There are some possibilities of exception, but still, 



