1 Juyz, 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 437 
intercourse on the part of their ancestors. The wild deer that has just now 
triumphed over his antagonist can boast that he is the scion of thousands of 
ancestors as good as he iy himself; of ancestors who have strongly, although 
unconsciously, cultivated the noble qualities through which he himself is 
distinguished, and have transferred them, a noble heirloom, to the child of the 
present era. There is another circumstance which must not be overlooked, and 
to which reference has already been made. It is at least probable that wild 
animals of the same locality are closely related to each other, and that to some 
extent in-breeding must haye been carried on amongst them. The children of 
the same mother naturally keep about her even after they have arrived at 
maturity—a fact frequently noticed in flocks of sheep. The natural affection 
between a mother and her young is likely to last beyond the infancy of the 
latter, and if so, the chances are that mother, daughter, and granddaughter keep: 
more or less closely together on the pasture and are mated by the same male. 
My own observations amongst sheep have cértainly led me to think so, and I find 
my opinion backed by forest masters on the Continent, who are unanimous in 
asserting that wild deer keep together and depasture in clans. Nature has here: 
foreshadowed to us two very important factors in breeding—namely, selection 
and in-breeding. 
It would lead us too far away from the practical part of the subject, if I 
were to explain the other theories expounded by naturalists for the purpose of 
explaining the origin of the different species. 
I may mention, however, that migration and isolation have, according to: 
Wallace and other naturalists, contributed a good deal towards the differentiation 
of certain originally similar groups of animals into distinct species. 
Tt stands to reason that, if certain animals leave their overcrowded pastures. 
and locate themselves in new lands, two things will probably occur :—Firstly, 
the new conditions will exercise a modifying influence on the immigrants. 
Secondly, their sexual intercourse will be restricted to the now limited number 
of those that have emigrated together, and that are now under the same 
modifying influences. The joint effect of the new conditions and the limitation 
of the sexual intercourse will, after a lapse of time, more or less differentiate: 
the animals in question from their original stock. 
Such migrations of animals from overcrowded feeding erounds, as well as 
periodical migrations into more congenial climates, are not uncommon. 1 nature.. 
‘As instances of such isolations having taken place in early times, we have the 
fact that some animals and birds are peculiar to certain localities, such as the 
armadillo in South America, the marsupials in Australia, the apteryx m. New 
Zealand, &e. 
Wagner mentions a number of such cases in North Africa. The Macroscelides 
Rozeli has never been found east of the river Shelif. ‘The small striped Barbary 
mouse (mus Barbarus) lives only on the eastern side of that river. A. small. 
ringed lizard (Amphisboena Wiegmann), occurs in Oran only. 
Such isolations may have been caused by volcanic actions, such as the raising 
and the sinking of land, &e., and consequently by the formation of new rivers, . 
mountains, &¢. These matters, however, though they may be interesting to the 
student of natural: history, have only a secondary interest for the practicab 
breeder. 3 Anhete 
In the foregoing explanations I have tried to show that—Firstly, the individual 
animals of the wild races now existing are exceedingly like to each other, and 
that no variations take place amongst them at the present time. Secondly, that this 
tendency of preserving the peculiarities with which the animals are now 
endowed is the result of certain agencies that have exercised their influence for 
a great number of years. So that these peculiarities of each race of animals. 
have existed amongst them probably for thousands of years. Thirdly, that they 
have consequently become xo strongly fixed that variations cannot take place, so: 
long as the animals continue to live under the influence of those agencies that 
have produced them, and have caused their preservation. 
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