220 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 



claw, and with wings to their feet, and of others with- 

 out rumps. Mr. Buffon mentions a breed of dogs 

 without tails, which are common at Rome and Naples, 

 which he supposes to have been produced by a cus- 

 tom, long established, of cutting their tails close off. 

 There are many kinds of pigeons admired for their 

 peculiarities which are more or less thus produced 

 and propagated." * 



6. The means of procuring food has, he says, 

 " diversified the forms of all species of animals. Thus 

 the nose of the swine has become hard for the pur- 

 pose of turning up the soil in search of insects and of 

 roots. The trunk of the elephant is an elongation of 

 the nose for the purpose of pulling down the branches 

 of trees for his food, and for taking up water without 

 bending his knees. " Beasts of prey have acquired 

 strong jaws or talons. Cattle have acquired a rough 

 tongue and a rough palate to pull off the blades of 

 grass, as cows and sheep. Some birds have acquired 

 harder beaks to crack nuts, as the parrot. Others 

 have acquired beaks to break the harder seeds, as 

 sparrows. Others for the softer kinds of flowers, or 

 the buds of trees, as the finches. Other birds have 

 acquired long beaks to penetrate the moister soils 

 in search of insects or roots, as woodcocks, and others 

 broad ones to filtrate the water of lakes and to retain 

 aquatic insects. All which seem to have been gradu- 

 ally produced during many generations by the per- 

 petual endeavors of the creature to supply the want 

 of food, and to have been delivered to their posterity 

 with constant improvement of them for the purpose 

 required " (p. 238). 



7. The third great want among animals is that of 

 security, which seems to have diversified the forms of 

 their bodies and the color of them ; these consist in 



* Zoonomia, i., p. 505 (3d edition, p. 335). 



