They believe that every race which breeds true, let the distinctive
characters be ever so slight, has had its wild prototype. At this rate
there must have existed at least a score of species of wild cattle, as many
sheep, and several goats, in Europe alone, and several even within Great
Britain. One author believes that there formerly existed eleven wild
species of sheep peculiar to Great Britain! When we bear in mind that
Britain has now not one peculiar mammal, and France but few distinct from
those of Germany, and so with Hungary, Spain, etc., but that each of these
kingdoms possesses several peculiar breeds of cattle, sheep, etc., we must
admit that many domestic breeds must have originated in Europe; for whence
otherwise could they have been derived? So it is in India. Even in the
case of the breeds of the domestic dog throughout the world, which I admit
are descended from several wild species, it cannot be doubted that there
has been an immense amount of inherited variation; for who will believe
that animals closely resembling the Italian greyhound, the bloodhound, the
bull-dog, pug-dog, or Blenheim spaniel, etc.--so unlike all wild
Canidae--ever existed 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 only get 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.
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