IV.] MINUTE MODIFICATIONS. 113 



of the skin and hair " of cattle. 1 In the English climate 

 an individual Porto Santo rabbit 2 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 3 describes that bird as being much degenerated 

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

 black colour, arid "with long pendulous appendages over 

 the beak enormously developed." Mr. Darwin again 

 tells us that there has suddenly appeared in a bed of 

 common broccoli a peculiar variety, faithfully transmitting 

 its newly acquired and remarkable characters ; 4 also that 

 there has been a rapid transformation of American varie- 

 ties of maize ; 5 that certainly " the Ancon 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 suddenly 

 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 " black- shouldered peacock" (Pavo 

 nigripennis) ; a distinct species, according to Dr. Sclater, 7 

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

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

 the previously existing breed." s Mr. Darwin's only explana- 

 tion of the phenomenon (on the supposition of the species 

 being distinct) is by reversion, owing to a supposed 



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



2 Ibid. p. 114. 3 Quoted, Ibid. p. 274. 4 Ibid. p. 324. 

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



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



8 "Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. i. p. 291. 



I 



