XI PHENOMENA OF ORGANIC NATURE 427 



however, forcibly brought forward by Mr. Darwin, 

 which has been noticed in connection with the breed- 

 ing of domesticated pigeons ; and it is, that how- 

 ever different these breeds of pigeons may be from 

 each other, and we have already noticed the great 

 differences in these breeds, that if, among any of 

 those variations, you chance to have a blue pigeon 

 turn up, it will be sure to have the black bars 

 across the wings, which are characteristic of the 

 original wild stock, the Rock Pigeon. 



Now, this is certainly a very remarkable cir- 

 cumstance ; but I do not see myself how it tells 

 very strongly either one way or the other. I 

 think, in fact, that this argument in favour of re- 

 currence to the primitive type might prove a great 

 deal too much for those who so constantly bring it 

 forward. For example, Mr. Darwin has very for- 

 cibly urged, that nothing is commoner than if you 

 examine a dun horse and I had an opportunity 

 of verifying this illustration lately while in the 

 islands of the West Highlands, where there are a 

 great many dun horses to find that horse exhibit 

 a long black stripe down his back, very often 

 stripes on his shoulder, and very often stripes on 

 his legs. I, myself, saw a pony of this description 

 a short time ago, in a baker's cart, near Rothesay, 

 in Bute : it had the long stripe down the back, 

 and stripes on the shoulders and legs, just like 

 those of the Ass, the Quagga, and the Zebra. 

 Now, if we interpret the theory of recurrence as 



