Chap. 1. 
XJNCOlSrSCIOUS selectiok. 
35 
would improve and modify any breed, in the same way 
as Bakewell, Collins, &c., by this very same process, 
only carried on more methodically, did greatly modify, 
even during their own lifetimes, the forms and qualities 
of their cattle. Slow and insensible changes of this 
kind could never be recognised unless actual measure¬ 
ments or careful drawings of the breeds in question 
had been made long ago, which might serve for com¬ 
parison. In some cases, however, unchanged, or but 
little changed individuals of the same breed may be found 
in less civilised districts, where the breed has been less 
improved. There is reason to believe that King Charles’s 
spaniel has been unconsciously modified to a large extent 
since the time of that monarch. Some highly competent 
anthorities are convinced that the setter is directly de¬ 
rived from the spaniel, and has probably been slowly 
altered from it. It is known that the English pointer 
has been greatly changed within the last century, and 
in this case the change has, it is believed, been chiefly 
effected by crosses with the fox-hound; but what con¬ 
cerns us is, that the change has been effected unconsci¬ 
ously and gradually, and yet so effectually, that, though 
the old Spanish pointer certainly came from Spain, Mr. 
Borrow has not seen, as I am informed by him, any 
native dog in Spain like our pointer. 
By a similar process of selection, and by careful train¬ 
ing, the whole body of English racehorses have come to 
surpass in fleetness and size the parent Arab stock, so 
that the latter, by the regulations for the Groodwood Eaces, 
are favoured in the weights they carry. Lord Spencer 
and others have shown how the cattle of England have 
increased in weight and in early maturity, compared with 
the stock formerly kept in this country. By comparing 
the accounts given in old pigeon treatises of carriers and 
tumblers with these breeds as now existing in Britain, 
