~) 
220 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 
t 
claw, and with wings to their feet, and of others with- 
out rumps. Mr. Buffon mentions a breed of dogs 
without tails, which are common at Rome and Naples, 
which he supposes to have been produced by a cus- 
tom, long established, of cutting their tails close off. 
There are many kinds of pigeons admired for their 
peculiarities which are more or less thus produced 
and propagated.” * 
6. The means of procuring food has, he says, 
“ diversified the forms of all species of animals. Thus 
the nose of the swine has become hard for the pur- 
pose of turning up the soil in search of insects and of 
roots. The trunk of the elephant is an elongation of 
the nose for the purpose of pulling down the branches 
of trees for his food, and for taking up water without 
bending his knees. Beasts of prey have acquired 
strong jaws or talons. Cattle have acquired a rough 
tongue and a rough palate to pull off the blades of 
grass, as cows and sheep. Some birds have acquired 
harder beaks to crack nuts, as the parrot. Others 
have acquired beaks to break the harder seeds, as 
sparrows. Others for the softer kinds of flowers, or 
the buds of trees, as the finches. Other birds have 
acquired long beaks to penetrate the moister soils 
in search of insects or roots, as woodcocks, and others 
broad ones to filtrate the water of lakes and to retain 
aquatic insects. All which seem to have been gradu- 
ally produced during many generations by the per- 
petual endeavors of the creature to supply the want 
of food, and to have been delivered to their posterity 
with constant improvement of them for the purpose 
required (p. 238). 
7. The third great want among animals is that of 
security, which seems to have diversified the forms of 
their bodies and the color of them; these consist in 
* Zoonomia, i., p. 505 (3d edition, p. 335). 
