[Onefinger-general] test

[Quail M. <inc...@ge...>]

Nt he has done this consciously. "It is very conducive to successful
breeding to keep only such
as are quiet and tractable," says an authority on rabbits,[43] and he
enjoins the selection of the handsomest and

_best-tempered_ does to serve as breeders. To a still greater extent man
has

favoured tameness unconsciously and indirectly. He has systematically
selected the largest and most prolific animals, and has thus doubled the
size

and the fertility of the domestic rabbit. In consciously
selecting the largest and most flourishing individuals
and the best and most prolific mothers,

he _must_ have unconsciously selected those rabbits whose relative
_tameness_ or placidity
of disposition rendered it possible for them to flourish and to produce
and rear large and thriving families, instead of fretting and pining as
the wilder captives would do. When we consider how exceedingly delicate
and easily disturbed yet all-important a function is that of maternity
in the continually breeding rabbit, we see that the tamest and the least
terrified would be the
most successful mothers, and so would continually be selected, although
man cared nothing for the
tameness in itself. The tamest mothers would also be less liable to
neglect or devour their offspring, as rabbits commonly do when their
young are handled too soon, or even when merely frightened by mice, &c.,
or disturbed by changed
surroundings. (3) We must remember the extraordinary fecundity of the
rabbit and the excessive amount of elimination that consequently takes
place either naturally or artificial