Chap. I. 
UNDER DOMESTICATION. 
19 
wild stock. Mr. Blyth^ whose opinion, from his large 
and varied stores of knowledge, I should value more 
than that of almost any one, thinks that all the breeds 
of poultry have proceeded from the common wild 
Indian fowl (G-allus bankiva). In regard to ducks and 
babbits, the breeds of which differ considerably from 
each other in structure, I do not doubt that they have 
all descended from the common wild duck and rabbit. 
The doctrine of the origin of our several domestic 
races from several aboriginal stocks, has been carried to 
an absurd extreme by some authors. They believe that 
every race which breeds true, let the distinctive cha¬ 
racters be ever so slight, has had its wild prototype. 
At this rate there must have existed at least a score of 
species of wild cattle, as many sheep, and several goats 
in Europe alone, and several even within Great Britain. 
One author believes that there formerly existed in 
Great Britain eleven wild species of sheep peculiar to it! 
When we bear in mind that Britain has now hardly one 
peculiar mammal, and France but few distinct from those 
of Germany and conversely, and so with Hungary, 
Spain, &c., but that each of these kingdoms possesses 
several peculiar breeds of cattle, sheep, &c., we must 
admit that many domestic breeds have originated in 
Europe; for whence could they have been derived, as 
these several countries do not possess a number of 
peculiar species as distinct parent-stocks ? So it is in 
India. Even in the case of the domestic dogs of the 
whole world, which I fully admit have probably de¬ 
scended from several wild species, I cannot doubt that 
there has been an immense amount of inherited varia¬ 
tion. Who can believe that animals closely resembling 
the Italian greyhound, the bloodhound, the bull-dog, 
or Blenheim spaniel, &c.-—so unlike all wild Canidse 
—ever existed freely in a state of nature ? It has 
often been loosely said that all our races of dogs have 
