DIVISIONS OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. Ixvii 



partial changes of conformation, which, being communicated, 

 become permanent characters. If one organ is injured or 

 removed, a provision is frequently made to compensate the 

 loss. In some parts of Scotland it appears to have become 

 a practice to scoop out the horns of young cattle, on the sup- 

 position that the animals would become more quiet, and less 

 apt to attack or gore one another. It would appear that the 

 system of the animal tended to repair this injury by a larger 

 development of the bony ridge of the forehead, from which 

 the osseous nuclei of the horns proceed ; and that this pro- 

 cess, carried on from generation to generation, became at 

 length a character, so that a hornless breed was produced. 

 There is a race of shepherds' dogs in this country, in which 

 it appears it had become a fashion to shorten the tails of 

 the animals. Now, a diminution of the caudal vertebrae may 

 produce a modification of the sacral in contact with them, 

 and thus a peculiar conformation be communicated to the 

 animals, which may become permanent by successive repro- 

 duction. Whether this be the origin of the peculiarity of 

 the race of dogs in question, cannot be determined ; but it 

 is known, that when, from any cause, dogs are born destitute 

 of tails, the peculiarity may be communicated to their de- 

 scendants, and become permanent.* 



Characters, then, of form, and of habits and instincts the 

 results of form, may be communicated from animals to their 

 progeny, and form Varieties, Races, or Breeds. We distin- 

 guish a species from a variety by this, that in the species 

 we regard the modification of a higher or more general type, 

 namely, of a genus, tribe, or family ; in the variety, the modi- 

 fication of a lower or less general type, namely, of a species. 

 But the variety is likewise the modification of the more gene- 



* There is an authentic record, quoted by Dr James Anderson, of a cat 

 which was accidentally deprived of its tail when young. The kittens of this 

 animal were born without tails, which character their descendants retained as 

 long as they were kept free from intermixture with other breeds ; and in the 

 Isle of Man, at this day, all the native cats have the tails short or rudimental. 



