IGNORANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY 
be construed into domestication, otherwise a tame lion or 
tiger must be considered a domestic animal. 
It may be as well, for general information, to endeavour 
to explain the meaning of the term domestic or domestic- 
ated. Domestic animals are those that have become 
subject to man, and are bred and reared for the purposes 
of food, for their usefulness, or as pets. There are some 
few animals that may be considered semi- domesticated, 
that is, half reclaimed from the wild state. The following 
list will probably include nearly the whole of the animals 
that can fairly be considered as domesticated, viz. : — Horse, 
ass, mule, dog, cat, pig, camel, llama, alpaca, ox, rabbit, 
sheep, goat, guinea-pig, common goose and Chinese goose, 
common duck and Muscovy duck, fowl, turkey, pigeon, 
canary. Semi or half-domesticated : — Red deer, fallow 
deer, pea-fowl. Guinea-fowl, pheasant, swan. 
All the species that are quite domesticated exhibit very 
great difference among them ; in fact, the variation in 
most of them would cause, and has caused, many persons 
to think and regard them as distinct species, instead of 
varieties of the same species. Take, for instance, the dog. 
The little pug or King Charles spaniel could hardly be 
expected to be the same species as a large greyhound or 
mastiff, yet such is undoubtedly the case. 
Had the names of the animals that the Act of Parlia- 
ment was intended to protect been inserted in the Act 
it would have saved a considerable amount of misunder- 
standing. If, in consequence of a few blundering mis- 
takes and convictions, the law is made to apply to wild 
animals, no sportsman, whether he be a fisherman, hunts- 
man, or gunner, will be free to pursue game, for to wound 
fish, flesh, or fowl is cruel, and sporting of all kinds must 
consequently be put down. 
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