See page in:
1859
1860
1861
1866
1869
1872

Compare with:
1859
1861
1866
1869
1872

as yet they will 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869
they will as yet 1872

and knowledge of any 1859 1860 1861 1866
of a 1869 1872

of the new sub-breed 1859 1860 1861 1866
in a new strain 1869
OMIT 1872

←Subtitle not present 1859 1860 1861 Circumstances favourable to Man's Power of Selection. 1866 1869 1872
most fleeting of characters, have lately been exhibited as distinct at our poultry-shows.
I think
I think
These
these
views
appear to
further
further
explain what has sometimes been noticed —
namely
namely,
that we know
hardly anything
nothing
about the origin or history of any of our domestic breeds. But, in fact, a breed, like a dialect of a language, can hardly be said to have
had
had
a
distinct
definite
origin. A man preserves and breeds from an individual with some slight deviation of structure, or takes more care than usual in matching his best
animals,
animals
and thus improves them, and the improved
animals
individuals
slowly spread in the immediate neighbourhood. But as yet they will hardly have a distinct name, and from being only slightly valued, their history will
have been
be
disregarded. When further improved by the same slow and gradual process, they will spread more widely, and will
be
get
recognised as something distinct and valuable, and will then probably first receive a provincial name. In semi-civilised countries, with little free communication, the spreading and knowledge of any new sub-breed
would
will
be a slow process. As soon as the points of value of the new sub-breed are once
fully
fully
acknowledged, the principle, as I have called it, of unconscious selection will always tend, — perhaps more at one period than at another, as the breed rises or falls in fashion, — perhaps more in one district than in another, according to the state of
civilisation
civilization
of the inhabitants, — slowly to add to the characteristic features of the breed, whatever they may be. But the chance will be infinitely small of any record having been preserved of such slow, varying, and insensible changes.
I
will
must
now say a few words on the circumstances, favourable, or the reverse, to
man's
mans
power of selection. A high degree of variability is obviously favourable, as freely giving the materials for selection to work on; not that mere individual differences are not amply