262 
THE POULTKY BOOK. 
when any variety has been noticed which it has been thought desirable to 
perpetuate, the progeny have been preserved. This process of artificial selection 
has been carried on for generation after generation : where great size has been 
required, the largest specimens have been selected for brood stock, and our 
Cochins and Brahmas have been the result. On the other hand, when smallness 
of size has been aimed at, the best specimens have been selected, and our bantam 
breeds have been thus produced. 
Colour, form, and even character, have been varied in the same manner. 
Amongst the old cockfighters, a game cock that would not fight was killed and eaten, 
and the race was perpetuated by those birds having the highest strength, agility, 
and courage. In the same manner variations of habit were rendered permanent. 
Eggs were required in larger numbers than chickens, and our non-sitting varieties 
were the result of the care shown in the selection of breeding stock from those 
fowls that were the best layers and showed the least inclination to sit. 
The varieties that were produced with so much care, require the same attention 
for their continued perpetuation ; without it, all our valuable domestic animals 
would degenerate into a comparatively worthless collection of mongrels, destitute of 
the good qualities that distinguished so many of those varieties that are now 
characterized as pure breeds. 
