956 Effects of Reversion to the Wild State [December, 
enable us to compare the wild with the domesticated animals, — 
although the wild horse and the wild ass are still met with in 
Asia, and the wild ox still existed in Scotland till within very 
recent times at least, but it may be well doubted whether the wild 
cattle of Scotland are the progenitors of our domestic ox. The 
domesticated buffalo, as seen in Southern Europe and Asia, and 
in Northern Africa, has degenerated less in both color and form 
than most other quadrupeds under domestication, and his wild 
habit still possesses him to a certain extent. 
he wild boar submits to domestication with remarkable docil- 
ity, and human care changes its form, color and habit in a very 
short time and in a remarkable degree. Human care, by judi- 
cious selection, may fix varieties of all these domesticated anl- 
mals with persistent characteristics, but immediately his super- 
vising care is withdrawn, all these peculiarities disappear. 
Of the birds, perhaps the peacock resists the influence of 
domestication with the most persistence, though the guinea fowl 
undergoes no perceptible change from generation to generation, 
with rare exceptions. : 
While all have had opportunity to observe the changes which 
have been wrought in our domesticated animals by human care and 
supervision, opportunities have not been so general for observing 
the effects upon our domesticated animals when allowed to return 
to the wild state. My observations lead me to the conclusion 
that the tendency is not only to return to the wild habit, but to 
the original form and coloring of the remote wild ancestor. That 
there is some law governing this reversion we may well believe, 
though we may not be able to fully understand it yet. 
_ My own observations tend to show not only a tendency 
_ least in some species, to revert to the original form and color ¢ 
the wild ancestor, but they also suggest the possibility that ae 
tendency is the strongest in those cases where the domesticat 
animal has most recently been reclaimed from the wild state, se 
in those cases where the change produced by domestication was 
the most rapid. ese RE 
I have had the best opportunities for studying this sOnee = 
the Hawaiian islands. With the exception of the goose and: en 
duck, nearly all of the animals which have been introduced aoe . 
those islands since their discovery, as well as those which ae ce 
then held in domestication! have reverted to the wild Oe 
ae "They had the hog and common fowl when discovered by Cook. 
, at 
r of 
