But we shall see in the sixth chapter that intermediate varieties, inhabiting intermediate districts, will in the long run generally be supplanted by one of the adjoining varieties.

Intercrossing will chiefly affect those animals which unite for each birth and wander much, and which do not breed at a very quick rate.

Hence with animals of this nature, for instance birds, varieties will generally be confined to separated countries; and this I find to be the case.

With hermaphrodite organisms which cross only occasionally, and likewise with animals which unite for each birth, but which wander little and can increase at a rapid rate, a new and improved variety might be quickly formed on any one spot, and might there maintain itself in a body and afterward spread, so that the individuals of the new variety would chiefly cross together.

On this principle nurserymen always prefer saving seed from a large body of plants, as the chance of intercrossing is thus lessened.
Even with animals which unite for each birth, and which do not propagate rapidly, we must not assume that free intercrossing would always eliminate the effects of natural selection; for I can bring forward a considerable body of facts showing that within the same area two varieties of the same animal may long remain distinct, from haunting different stations, from breeding at slightly different seasons, or from the individuals of each variety preferring to pair together.
Intercrossing plays a very important part in nature by keeping the individuals of the same species, or of the same variety, true and uniform in character.