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I believe, at least I make believe, that the like to this is the 

 natural history of every other species of living creature, mutatis 

 mutandis. You may say that it is really too ridiculous. It is not 

 so to my mind. No doubt the animals in transition must have 

 perished, being neither one thing nor the other, and of course 

 those which had no beneficial change must have perished also for 

 want of it. This I must own has rather a queer look about it, 

 and " if it had been asked how an insectivorous quadruped could 

 possibly have been converted into a flying bat, the question 

 would have been far more difficult, and / could have given no 

 answer;" yet I think " such difficulties have little weight." It's 

 all one to me. Venio, video, vinco. 



I believe that dogs preying on hares and rabbits, the rabbits 

 became scarce and the hares increased. Then the dogs would 

 try to catch more hares, and the dogs " with slightly plastic limbs" 

 (for which I beg the whole question) would be "slightly 

 favoured," and so would live longer and survive through a 

 scarcity of food, and would also have more young with a 

 tendency to inherit these advantages. Yes, " I see no reason to 

 doubt that these causes would in a thousand generations 

 produce a marked effect, and adapt the form of the dog to 

 catching hares." You may quote Professor Owen that " this 

 condition of things, if followed out to its full consequences, seems 

 only to tend to my original inference, viz., an extinction of species, 

 for when the hares were all destroyed, the long-legged dogs 

 would perish ; at most there could be but a reversion to the first 

 form and condition." Professor Owen may argue in this way if 

 he likes. " Who shall decide, when doctors disagree?" He and 

 I differ, that is all. As to the short-legged dogs and what 

 would become of them in one generation, not to say in a 

 thousand, all I have to say is, " Love me, love my dog-ma." 



I believe, as to birds, that it took untold ages to make the 

 first bird out of I know not what : " Better late than never," 

 you know. The process began at first somewhere or other, 

 though I know not where . One new form succeeded another in 

 untold profusion for a few hundred millions of ages more or less, 

 each form becoming more and more like a true bird, till at 



