58 Permanence and Evolution. 



voyage, and with her young ones was taken to 

 the island. The race increased so rapidly that 

 they consumed everything that was planted by 

 the colonists. The following year, after a short 

 absence, they found the rabbit increased to such 

 an extent, spite of all their efforts to destroy 

 them, they produced no sensible diminution in 

 their numbers." There is then on the face of 

 the story no sense in connecting Zarco's cage- 

 rabbit with the plague of wild rabbits which 

 appeared immediately on her landing. 



THE PIGEON 



is supposed to be the strong point of transmu- 

 tationists, and we often hear the unmixed descent 

 of domestic pigeons from the rock dove spoken of 

 as a fact. Darwin, who has practical experience 

 in pigeons, says that they breed so true that it 

 was a long time before he could believe that all 

 the difference between them was prpduced under 

 domestication. He says that the more marked 



