﻿214 Darwin, and after Darwin, 



that imported breeds of dogs " alter strangely ; their 

 ears grow long and stiff like those of foxes, to which 

 colour they also incline . . . and in three or four 

 broods their barking turns into a howl V 



Darwin gives numerous facts showing the effects of 

 climate on horses, cattle, and sheep, in altering, more 

 or less considerably, the characters of their ancestral 

 stocks. He also gives the following remarkable case 

 with regard to the rabbit. Early in the fifteenth 

 century a common rabbit and her young ones were 

 turned out on the island of Porto Santo, near Madeira. 

 The feral progeny now differ in many respects from 

 their parent stock. They are only about one-third of 

 the weight, present many differences in the relative 

 sizes of different parts, and have greatly changed in 

 colour. In particular, the black on the upper surface 

 of the tail and tips of the ears, which is so constant 

 in all other wild rabbits of the world as to be given 

 in most works as a specific character, has entirely 

 disappeared. Again, " the throat and certain parts of 

 the under surface, instead of being pure white, are 

 generally grey or leaden colour/' while the upper 

 surface of the whole body is redder than in the 

 common rabbit. Now, what answer have our op- 

 ponents to make to such a case as this ? Presumably 

 they will answer that the case simply proves the 

 action of natural selection during the best part of 400 

 years on an isolated section of a species. Although 

 we cannot say of what use all these changes have 

 been to the rabbits presenting them, nevertheless we 

 must believe that they have been produced by natural 

 selection, and therefore must present some hidden use 



1 Variation, &c. vol. i. p. 40. 



