So it has been with dogs; our present fox-hounds differ from the old English
hound; our greyhounds have become lighter: the Scotch deer-hound has been
modified, and is now rare. Our bulldogs differ from those which were formerly
used for baiting bulls. Our pointers and Newfoundlands do not closely resemble
any native dog now found in the countries whence they were brought. These
changes have been effected partly by crosses; but in every case the result has
been governed by the strictest selection. Nevertheless, there is no reason to
suppose that man intentionally and methodically made the breeds exactly what
they now are. As our horses became fleeter, and the country more cultivated
and smoother, fleeter fox-hounds were desired and produced, but probably
without any one distinctly foreseeing what they would become. Our pointers and
setters, the latter almost certainly descended from large spaniels, have been
greatly modified in accordance with fashion and the desire for increased
speed. Wolves have become extinct, and so has the wolf-dog; deer have become
rarer, bulls are no longer baited, and the corresponding breeds of the dog
have answered to the change. But we may feel almost sure that when, for
instance, bulls were no longer baited, no man said to himself, I will now
breed my dogs of smaller size, and thus create the present race. As
circumstances changed, men unconsciously and slowly modified their course of
selection.
With racehorses selection for swiftness has been followed methodically, and
our horses now easily surpass their progenitors. The increased size and
different appearance of the English racehorse led a good observer in India to
ask," Could any one in this year of 1856, looking at our racehorses, conceive
that they were the result of the union of the Arab horse and the African
mare?" (20/72. 'The India Sporting Review' volume 2 page 181; 'The Stud Farm'
by Cecil page 58.) This change has, it is probable, been largely effected
through unconscious selection, that is, by the general wish to breed as fine
horses as possible in each generation, combined with training and high
feeding, but without any intention to give to them their present appearance.
According to Youatt (20/73. 'The Horse' page 22.), the introduction in Oliver
Cromwell's time of three celebrated Eastern stallions speedily affected the
English breed; "so that Lord Harleigh, one of the old school, complained that
the great horse was fast disappearing." This is an excellent proof how
carefully selection must have been attended to; for without such care, all
traces of so small an infusion of Eastern blood would soon have been absorbed
and lost. Notwithstanding that the climate of England has never been esteemed
particularly favourable to the horse, yet long-continued selection, both
methodical and unconscious, together with that practised by the Arabs during a
still longer and earlier period, has ended in giving us the best breed of
horses in the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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