Origin of Species Variorum

→ species and species of the same 1859 1860 1861 1866

OMIT 1869 1872

→ let us seek 1859 1860 1861 1866

I have sought 1869 1872

→ variations of a similar character 1861 1866 1869

similar variations 1872

→ In practice, a fancier is, for instance, 1861 1866 1869 1872

A fancier is 1859 1860

→ the sub-breeds of the tumbler-pigeon) 1861 1866 1869 1872

tumbler-pigeons) 1859 1860

→ one man preferred 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

of history, the men of one nation or district required 1872

→ another 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

whilst those of another required 1872

lesser difference between varieties become augmented into the greater difference between species? That this does habitually happen, we must infer from most of the innumerable species throughout nature presenting well-marked differences; whereas varieties, the supposed prototypes and parents of future well-marked species, present slight and ill-defined differences. Mere chance, as we may call it, might cause one variety to differ in some character from its parents, and the offspring of this variety again to differ from its parent in the very same character and in a greater degree; but this alone would never account for so habitual and large

a degree

an amount

of difference as that between

varieties

the species

well-marked varieties

of the same →species and species of the same genus.

As has always been my practice, →let us seek light on this head from our domestic productions. We shall here find something analogous. It will be admitted that the production of races so different as short-horn and Hereford cattle, race and cart horses, the several breeds of pigeons, &c., could never have been effected by the mere chance accumulation of →variations of a similar character during many successive generations. →In practice, a fancier is, for instance, struck by a pigeon having a slightly shorter beak; another fancier is struck by a pigeon having a rather longer beak; and on the acknowledged principle that "fanciers do not and will not admire a medium standard, but like extremes," they both go on (as has actually occurred with →the sub-breeds of the tumbler-pigeon) choosing and breeding from birds with longer and longer beaks, or with shorter and shorter beaks. Again, we may suppose that at an early period →one man preferred swifter

horses,

horses;

→another stronger and

bulkier

more bulky

horses. The early differences would be very slight;

but, in

the course of time, from the continued