These views appear to explain what has sometimes been noticed, namely, that we know hardly anything about the origin or history of any of our domestic breeds.

But, in fact, a breed, like a dialect of a language, can hardly be said to have a distinct origin.

A man preserves and breeds from an individual with some slight deviation of structure, or takes more care than usual in matching his best animals, and thus improves them, and the improved animals slowly spread in the immediate neighbourhood.

But they will as yet hardly have a distinct name, and from being only slightly valued, their history will have been disregarded.