the Varieties of Animals. 45 



above-mentioned, have, in the course of generations, become 

 much larger and heavier (excepting, however, in the case of 

 the turkey) than their wild prototypes, and less fitted for 

 locomotion; but which, if turned loose into their natural 

 haunts, would most probably return, in a very few genera- 

 tions, to the form, size, and degree of locomotive ability 

 proper to the species when naturally conditioned.* The 

 crested varieties of domestic geese and ducks, and the hook- 

 billed variety of the latter, are, however, in all probability, 

 true varieties; and what are called * ; lob-eared " % rabbits may 

 be either a true variety, or a breed. The various slight diver- 

 sities, which I call simple variations, arc very common in the 

 present class of varieties ; and there is also in them a great 

 tendency to produce what I call true varieties, as well as those 

 slighter deviations, which, by particular management, may be 

 increased into the sort of variety I denominaie bleeds. 



III. Breeds are my third class of varieties ; and though 

 these may possibly be sometimes formed by accidental isola- 

 tion in a state of nature, yet they are, for the most part, 

 artificially brought about by the direct agency of man. It is 

 a general law of nature for all creatures to propagate the 

 like of themselves: and this extends even to the most trivial 

 minutiae, to the slightest individual peculiarities ; and thus, 

 among ourselves, we see a family likeness transmitted from 

 generation to generation. When two animals are matched 

 together, each remavkable for a certain given peculiarity, no 

 matter how trivial, there is also a decided tendency in nature 

 for that peculiarity to increase ; and if the produce of these 

 animals be set apart, and only those in which the same pecu- 

 liarity is most apparent, be selected to breed from, the next 



* [A Tame Duck which flies with the same Power, and at the same Height, 

 as a Crow. (H. S., in I. 378.) — Was not this duck a wild one ? I am 

 led to ask this question from having myself witnessed a similar instance. 

 I had often seen a duck, which 1 had taken to be a tame one, flving about, 

 and always returning to the farm to which it belonged. On enquiry, I 

 found that this duck had been taken, when a duckling, from the nest of a 

 wild duck, and began to fly as soon as it was full grown. The case which 

 H. S. mentions might probably be accounted for in the same manner, as it 

 is by no means likely that so unwieldy a bird as the tame duck should 

 think of trying its wings, after its ancestors had for so many successive 

 generations been satisfied with walking and swimming, and fly " with the 

 same power, and at the same height, as a crow." — W. H. II. Postmark, 

 Burton on Trent, Oct. 8. 1834. 



The late Rev. Lansdown Guilding had remarked as follows on the case 

 stated by H. S. : — 



Domestic birds, from flying little, have their muscles relaxed, or, per- 

 haps, they never acquire their natural strength, for want of exercise. I 

 have observed the geese in Worcestershire, in harvest time, to take very 

 long flights; but, though they went on boldly, they never ascended very 

 far into the air. — Lansdoivn Guilding. St. Vincent, May 1. 1830.] 



