Origin of Species Variorum

→ since they had been domesticated they had all proceeded 1866 1869 1872

they could ever have descended 1859

they could have descended 1860

since they were domesticated they could all have descended 1861

→ or both from a common parent-stock, and 1866 1869 1872

and 1859 1860 1861

treat of Selection. We shall then, also, see how it is that the

breeds

several breeds

so often have a somewhat monstrous character. It is also a most favourable circumstance for the production of distinct breeds, that male and female pigeons can be easily mated for life; and thus different breeds can be kept together in the same aviary.

I have discussed the probable origin of domestic pigeons at some, yet quite insufficient, length; because when I first kept pigeons and watched the several kinds,

knowing well

well knowing

how

true

truly

they

bred,

breed,

I felt fully as much difficulty in believing that →since they had been domesticated they had all proceeded from a common parent, as any naturalist could in coming to a similar conclusion in regard to the many species of finches, or other

large

....

groups of birds, in nature. One circumstance has struck me much; namely, that

all

nearly all

the breeders of the various domestic animals and the cultivators of plants, with whom I have

ever

....

conversed, or whose treatises I have read, are firmly convinced that the several breeds to which each has attended, are descended from so many aboriginally distinct species. Ask, as I have asked, a celebrated raiser of Hereford cattle, whether his cattle might not have descended from

long-horns,

Long-horns,

→or both from a common parent-stock, and he will laugh you to scorn. I have never met a pigeon, or poultry, or duck, or rabbit fancier, who was not fully convinced that each main breed was descended from a distinct species. Van Mons, in his treatise on pears and apples, shows how utterly he disbelieves that the several sorts, for instance a Ribston-pippin or Codlin-apple, could ever have proceeded from the seeds of the same tree. Innumerable other examples could be given. The explanation, I think, is simple: from long-continued study they are strongly impressed with the differences between the several races; and though they well know that each race varies slightly, for they win their prizes by selecting such slight differences, yet they ignore all general arguments, and refuse to sum up in their minds slight differences accumulated during many

sucecssive

successive

generations. May not those naturalists who, knowing far less of the laws of inheritance than does the breeder, and knowing no more than he does of the intermediate links in the long lines of descent, yet admit that many of our domestic races

have

are

descended from the same parents — may they not learn a lesson of caution, when they deride the idea of species in a state of nature being lineal descendants of other species?