ACQUIRED CHARACTERS AND MUTATIONS 75 



Dogs and sheep and horses in England have had their 

 tails cut off for very many generations. Yet each pup, colt, 

 and lamb born of these tail-docked ancestors has as normal 

 a tail as if its ancestors had never endured any amputation. 

 The acquired character of short tail has never been passed 

 on and never will be. 



With such facts in mind we naturally ask how short-tailed 

 cats came into existence, and how it is that such cats are able 

 to pass on the short-tailed character. A series of rather star- 

 tling facts points the 

 way to a probable 

 answer. They deal 

 with what are called 

 mutations. In more 

 ordinary language a 

 mutation is referred 

 to as a sport, and a 

 sport might be de- 

 scribed as a living 

 novelty which cannot 

 be explained by its 

 ancestors. 



To illustrate this : 

 In Paraguay, in the 



midst of an ordinary herd of long-horned cattle there appeared 

 one day a young bull destitute of horns. This was in 1770. 

 Not an ancestor of that small animal had been hornless, yet 

 until he died he remained as hornless as when he was born. 

 He was a mutation — a sport. 



An animal without horns is so easy to manage that this 

 one pleased his owners, and they wished to have others like 

 him. But as he was the only one of his kind, his pairing had 



Full-Grown Japanese Pine Tree 

 Dwarfed by human skill 



