whence could they have been derived, as these several countries do not
possess a number of peculiar species as distinct parent-stocks? So it
is in India. Even in the case of the domestic dogs of the whole world,
which I fully admit have probably descended from several wild species,
I cannot doubt that there has been an immense amount of inherited
variation. Who can believe that animals closely resembling the Italian
greyhound, the bloodhound, the bull-dog, or Blenheim spaniel, etc.--so
unlike all wild Canidae--ever existed freely in a state of nature? It
has often been loosely said that all our races of dogs have been
produced by the crossing of a few aboriginal species; but by crossing
we can get only forms in some degree intermediate between their
parents; and if we account for our several domestic races by this
process, we must admit the former existence of the most extreme forms,
as the Italian greyhound, bloodhound, bull-dog, etc., in the wild
state. Moreover, the possibility of making distinct races by crossing
has been greatly exaggerated. There can be no doubt that a race may be
modified by occasional crosses, if aided by the careful selection of
those individual mongrels, which present any desired character; but
that a race could be obtained nearly intermediate between two
extremely different races or species, I can hardly believe. Sir J.
Sebright expressly experimentised for this object, and failed. The
offspring from the first cross between two pure breeds is tolerably
and sometimes (as I have found with pigeons) extremely uniform, and
everything seems simple enough; but when these mongrels are crossed
one with another for several generations, hardly two of them will be
alike, and then the extreme difficulty, or rather utter hopelessness,
of the task becomes apparent. Certainly, a breed intermediate between
TWO VERY DISTINCT breeds could not be got without extreme care and
long-continued selection; nor can I find a single case on record of a
permanent race having been thus formed.