IV.] MINUTE MODIFICATIONS. 113 



of the skin and liair " of cattle.^ In the English climate 

 an individual Porto Santo rabbit- recovered the proper 

 colour of its fur in rather less than four years. The effect 

 of the climate of India on the turkey is considerable. 

 Mr. Blyth ^ describes that bird as being much degenerated 

 in size, "utterly incapable of rising on the wing," of a 

 black colour, and " with long pendulous appendages over 

 the beak enormously developed." Mr. Darwin again 

 tells lis that there has suddenly appeared in a bed of 

 common broccoli a peculiar variety, faithfully transmitting 

 its newly acquired and remarkable characters ; ^ also that 

 there has been a rapid transformation of American varie- 

 ties of maize ; ^ that certainly " the An con and Man- 

 champ breeds of sheep," and that (all but certainly) 

 Niata cattle, turnspit and pug dogs, jumper and frizzled 

 fowls, short-faced tumbler pigeons, hook-billed ducks, &c., 

 and a multitude of vegetable varieties, have .snddeuly 

 appeared in nearly the same state as we now see them.^ 

 Lastly, Mr. Darwin tells us, that there has been an 

 occasional development (in five distinct cases) in England 

 of the "japanned" or " T)lack-shouldered peacock" (Pavo 

 nigrrpcnnis) ; a distinct species, according to Dr. Sclater,' 

 yet arising in Sir J. Trevelyan's flock composed entirely 

 of the common kind, and increasing, " to the extinction of 

 the lOTcviously existing hrccd^^ ^Ir. Darwin's only explana- 

 tion of the phenomenon (on the supposition of the species 

 being distinct) is by reversion, owing to a supposed 



^ "Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. i. p. 71. 



2 Ibid. p. 114. '-^ Quoted, Ibid. p. 274. * Ibid. p. 324. 



5 Ibid. p. 322. « Ibid. vol. ii. p. 414. 



'' Proc. Zool. Soc. of London, April 24, 1860. 



^ "Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. i. ]>. 2'.»1. 



I 



