70 ARE THE EFFECTS OF USE INHERITED ? 



SHORTENED FEET IN PIGEONS. 



Darwin thinks it highly probable that the short 

 feet of most breeds of pigeons are due to lessened 

 use, though he owns that the effects of correlation 

 with the shortened beak are more plainly shown 

 than the effects of disuse. 1 But why need the 

 inherited effects of disuse be called in to explain 

 an average reduction of some 5 per cent., when 

 Darwin's measurements show that in the breeds 

 where long beaks are favoured the principle of 

 correlation between these parts has lengthened 

 the foot by 1 3 per cent, in spite of disuse ? 



SHORTENED LEGS OF RABBITS. 



In the case of the domestic rabbit Darwin 

 notices that the bones of the legs have (relatively) 

 become shorter by an inch and a half. But 



1 Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, i. 183, 

 1 86. 



