When man attempts to make a breed with some serious defect in structure, or in
the mutual relation of the several parts, he will partly or completely fail,
or encounter much difficulty; he is in fact resisted by a form of natural
selection. We have seen that an attempt was once made in Yorkshire to breed
cattle with enormous buttocks, but the cows perished so often in bringing
forth their calves, that the attempt had to be given up. In rearing short-
faced tumblers, Mr. Eaton says (21/5. 'Treatise on the Almond Tumbler' 1851
page 33.), "I am convinced that better head and beak birds have perished in
the shell than ever were hatched; the reason being that the amazingly short-
faced bird cannot reach and break the shell with its beak, and so perishes."
Here is a more curious case, in which natural selection comes into play only
at long intervals of time: during ordinary seasons the Niata cattle can graze
as well as others, but occasionally, as from 1827 to 1830 the plains of La
Plata suffer from long-continued droughts and the pasture is burnt up; at such
times common cattle and horses perish by the thousand, but many survive by
browsing on twigs, reeds, etc.; this the Niata cattle cannot so well effect
from their upturned jaws and the shape of their lips; consequently, if not
attended to, they perish before the other cattle. In Columbia, according to
Roulin, there is a breed of nearly hairless cattle, called Pelones; these
succeed in their native hot district, but are found too tender for the
Cordillera; in this case, however, natural selection determines only the range
of the variety. It is obvious that a host of artificial races could never
survive in a state of nature;--such as Italian greyhounds,--hairless and
almost toothless Turkish dogs,--fantail pigeons, which cannot fly well against
a strong wind,--barbs and Polish fowls, with their vision impeded by their eye
wattles and great topknots,--hornless bulls and rams, which consequently
cannot cope with other males, and thus have a poor chance of leaving
offspring,--seedless plants, and many other such cases.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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