The common ilk, as BWL says, associates almost entirely only with its own kind, usually a small subset thereof, throughout its life cycle. As a result, the over-use of one's own ilk has often led to breeding problems, mutations, and an inability to relate socially with others not of one's own ilk. This lack of cross-pollination among ilk reduces the number of ilks available for new entities to elect themselves as one of and reduces the number of definitions available for others of his ilk as well, since the total number of ilks is reduced.

Fortunately, the Uncommon Ilk, or Rare Breed, is not subject to these difficulties, and in some cases has been known to refresh the gene pool available to those of the common Ilk. The Uncommon Ilk is also, by reason of this difference, much harder to find (as its name indicates) and in fact many women have been known to spend their lives seeking someone of this Ilk, often with quite frustrating results.

A