532 The American Naturalist. (Tune, 
STATE, Rep. Gray. | Source oF INFORMATION. 
| 
Texas. Tyler. W.-L. McDaniel. 
i is Co. Chas. D. Oldright. 
Vermont, East Berkshire G. B. Hopkins. 
Strafford. Chas. P. Collins. 
Lunnenburg. W. E. Balch. 
Castleton. A. O. Johnso 
St. Johnsbury.| Franklin Fairbanks. 
Virginia, Variety Mills. H. M. Micklem 
ytheville. John B. Barrett, Jr 
Eagle Rock. J. T: Paxton. 
New Market. Geo. M. Neese. 
West Virginia. Charlestown. B. W. Mitchell. 
French Creek.| Earle A. Brooks. 
White Sulphur 
Springs. Thaddeus Surber. 
Wisconsin. Madison. Chas. F. Carr. 
Madison. : herari e Vol. I, 188. 
Racine. Dr. F: Hoy. 
Jefferson. Ludwig tao 
Pewaukee. B. F. Goss 
time occur, which in some way better fitted the individual for 
the struggle for existance. Through countless generations this 
has been perpetuated by the inter-breeding of those possessing 
- it, in consequence, the grays, as has been seen (see map), have 
entirely disappeared in at least one portion of the country, and 
ve become extremely rare in others. Many difficulties exist, 
both in showing the original condition, and in explaining the 
present state of affairs. In early scientific work, as is well known, 
no attention whatever was paid to matters of this nature, con- 
sequently it is impossible to ascertain the proportion of 
and gray birds at a period say four hundred years ago—still, 
I hope to reason by analogy. As for the possible causes influ- 
encing the change, they will be found fully treated in their 
` proper place; at present the theory is either to be proved or 
disproved. 
Assuming that the gray was the ancestral stock, and that 
the producing of gray birds by red parents is a tendency to 
revert to ancestral characters, an aneigons case will be found 
in Darwin’s own experiments. 
As is well known, many of these were performed with pig- 
eons, which proved to be the best subjects, and the following 
is quoted from the “Origin of Species: ” 
*Origin of Species, pp. 17-19. 
