EVIDENCES OF EVOLUTION 65 



and apes, but the degree of relationship with 

 the different main groups of apes can be 

 determined beyond possibility of mistake." 



MAN AS TRANSFORMIST. It is time, how- 

 ever, to pass from the laboratory to the breed- 

 ing-pen and experimental plot, to recall the 

 very striking transformations that man, by 

 selective breeding, has effected in his domesti- 

 cated animals and cultivated plants. Darwin 

 pointed to what has taken place in the case 

 of sheep and cattle, cabbages and apples, and 

 a score of other cases, and pressed home the 

 question : If Man has been instrumental in fix- 

 ing all these varieties in a short time, what may 

 not Nature have effected in a very long time? 



There are over two hundred very well- 

 marked breeds of domestic pigeons, and there 

 are at least ten that would be ranked as 

 distinct genera if they occurred wild ; yet 

 there is very strong evidence that all are 

 scions of the blue rock-dove, Columba livia. 

 In the same way there is very strong evidence 

 that all the breeds of poultry Hamburghs 

 and Dorkings, Bantams and Silk-fowl, and all 

 the rest of them, are descended from the 

 jungle-fowl, Gall us bankiva, still found wild 

 in some parts of India and the Malay Islands. 

 Since the canary was introduced into Europe 

 about the middle of the sixteenth century, 





