The Descent of Man

that any character, even with animals kept by
semi-civilised people, has not been subjected to
selection by man, and thus augmented, yet in
the cases just specified this is improbable; more
especially as the characters are confined to the
males, or are more strongly developed in them
than in the females. If it were positively known
that the above African ram is a descendant of
the same primitive stock as the other breeds of
sheep, and if the Berbura male-goat with his
mane, dewlap, etc., is descended from the same
stock as other goats, then, assuming that selection
has not been applied to these characters,
they must be due to simple variability, together
with sexually- limited inheritance.
Hence it appears reasonable to extend this same
view to all analogous cases with animals in
a state of nature. Nevertheless I cannot persuade
myself that it generally holds good, as in the
case of the extraordinary development of hair
on the throat and fore-legs of the male Ammo-