362 EwAKi' — Variation : Germinal and Environmental. 



Provided with a stock of half -wild rabbits, the next thing was to see what would 

 happen when they were crossed with white rabbits, and with each other. 



I first crossed a white doe, having a trace of Himalaya blood (indicated by 

 her light-grey snout, ears, feet, and tail), with a half-wild buck, and obtained four 

 grey does — slightly lighter than their half-wild sire — a black buck with two white 

 patches, and a buck built like a wild rabbit, but in colour very like a Himalaya. 

 Somewhat similar results were obtained with other white does, and by crossing 

 half-wild does with white bucks ; i.e. there were always several colours represented 

 in the cross-bred litters. 



(fl). Interhreeding a cause of variation. 



The result of mating the lialf-breeds with each other was sufficiently unexpected. 

 The half-wilds were so uniform in colour and size that I imagined their offspring 

 would also be fairly uniform ; but instead of uniformity there was an epidemic of 

 variation. Of eight young, the offspring of the grey half-wild rabbits, one was grey, 

 one squirrel-coloured — a tint occasionall}' seen amongst wild rabbits — one was pure 

 white, one slaty-blue, one of a brownish tint, one black and white, and two were 

 yellow and white. They differ in other respects, the black, e.g. has a leg ci'ooked like 

 the fore-legs of a basset hound, and the grey is absolutely tailless; the does matured 

 and had young at different times, and differed in their fertility, and in the care 

 of their young, while the grey one was much later in reaching maturity than his 

 squirrel-like brother. Moreover, in disposition they were very different. The 

 squirrel-coloured one became the fiercest buck I have ever had — he routed 

 males nearly twice his size ; the slaty-blue, on the contrary, is extremely 

 small and unobtrusive ; and while the white and the yellow and white ones 

 fed frequently, the others fed hurriedly at intervals, hiding away at other 

 times. Weighed when six weeks old, they varied from nine to seventeen 

 and a half ounces. 



Byway of accounting for so much variation in the organic world, for the evo- 

 lution of so many kinds of plants and animals since our planet was capable of 

 sustaining life, it has been suggested that, at the outset, variation was both more 

 common and more pronounced than it is now. I think the difference between the 

 present and the past is rather that while, at the beginning, if five or six distinct 

 varieties appeared they would all have a chance of establishing themselves, now, 

 owing to almost every possible niche being occupied with forms admirably adapted 

 for the particular environment, there is so much competition that it is almost 

 impossible — almost a miracle — if a new variety manages to obtain a footing with- 

 out supplanting an already existing variety. 



