66 



further interference ; the Babbit, on the other hand, has done 

 so, as it was intended it should, and probably in consequence it 

 was created with far greater powers of reproduction in order to 

 make it more useful to man. Our children have kept wild Rab- 

 bits, quite tame, as pets for years, in wire cages without bottoms, 

 so that when put on the grass they feed and retire as they please, 

 but they have always been kept separate. They like to be carried 

 about, and to run about a room ; but if they do get out outside 

 it is no easy matter to get hold of them again, perhaps more from 

 their being frightened than anything else, they move so quickly 

 and there is literally nothing to catch hold of. 



Now we come back again to the birds. What a most valuable 

 fellow the Turkey is : no doubt it was intended specially for 

 man's use domesticated. The Pea Fowl, and Gold and Sil- 

 ver Pheasants, seem to have been created specially for man as 

 ornaments, and as such only, as though they live and thrive well 

 with his care they can scarcely be called useful. 



We now come to Geese and Ducks. Can any one doubt but 

 that the Grey Lag Goose and the Mallard, the origin of our do- 

 mestic birds, were created for our special use. Ro other species 

 of either genus has ever been reduced to a state of domestication 

 like them. The Goose has not changed much from its typical 

 form, many still retaining the original shape and even colour. 

 The Duck has changed perhaps rather more, but the Drake al- 

 ways retains its typical curled tail feathers. 



There is one thing which has always struck me as remarkable 

 which is this, the similarity in the plumage of the true wild 

 Mallards ; though no two are exactly alike, the wild birds always 

 show the true plumage of the species. One would think that 

 in some places the wild birds might sometimes pair with tame 

 birds, and that a pied plumage would sometimes be the con- 

 sequence in the young, and that they might become wild and 

 migrate and travel about as Nature directs and teaches the wild 

 birds, and show variety in the apparently wild birds, but they 

 do not seem to do so. 



