200 THE ANGORA GOAT. 
been taken in his youth, and clothed and schooled into 
conformity with the outward forms of civilised life, at 
some sudden caprice throws off with his irksome gar- 
ments all the restraints which the adopted habits had 
imposed, and returns to his savage state, in like 
manner, the cross between two dissimilar races, causes 
a return to the original wild type common to both. For 
instance, a cross between almost any two of the highly 
artificial breeds of fancy pigeons, causes an immediate 
reversion to the blue rock pigeon (Golumba Livia), 
which is believed to be the wild type of all the domesti- 
cated varieties. The result of a cross between any two 
distinct breeds of the domestic fowl is usually that the 
progeny shows a likeness to the Gallus Bankiva, which 
is looked upon as the wild form from which all the 
domestic varieties are descended. The same thing has 
been observed to be the result of crossing different 
breeds of domestic rabbits, the progeny usually 
reverting to the grey colour of the aboriginal form of the 
animal. Did space permit, many similar instances of 
this might be given, but the fact may be accepted 
without further proof, and it will be seen that very 
serious divergencies from the intermediate forms be- 
tween the two breeds may be looked for in crossing 
dissimilar races. 
It will sometimes occur that one race has a much 
greater pre-potency than another, from having been 
carefully bred for a long period to one type. In this 
case, the progeny instead of being intermediate 
between the two, in their general qualities will show 
a greater likeness to the purer race. This is seen 
where the pure Angora is put to common .goats. 
Whether the common goats were black, brown, or 
