362 Ewarr— Variation: Germinal and Environmental. 
Provided with a stock of half-wild rabbits, the next thing was to see what would 
happen when they were crossed with white rabbits, and with each other. 
I first crossed a white doe, having a trace of Himalaya blood (indicated by 
her light-grey snout, ears, feet, and tail), with a half-wild buck, and obtained four 
grey does—slightly lighter than their half-wild sire—a black buck with two white 
patches, and a buck built like a wild rabbit, but in colour very like a Himalaya. 
Somewhat similar results were obtained with other white does, and by crossing 
half-wild does with white bucks; 7.e. there were always several colours represented 
in the cross-bred litters. 
(a). Interbreeding a cause of variation. 
The result of mating the half-breeds with each other was sufficiently unexpected. 
The half-wilds were so uniform in colour and size that I imagined their offspring 
would also be fairly uniform ; but instead of uniformity there was an epidemic of 
variation. Of eight young, the offspring of the grey half-wild rabbits, one was grey, 
one squirrel-coloured—a tint occasionally seen amongst wild rabbits—one was pure 
white, one slaty-blue, one of a brownish tint, one black and white, and two were 
yellow and white. They differ in other respects, the black, e.g. has a leg crooked like 
the fore-legs of a basset hound, and the grey is absolutely tailless; the does matured 
and had young at different times, and differed in their fertility, and in the care 
of their young, while the grey one was much later in reaching maturity than his 
squirrel-like brother. Moreover, in disposition they were very different. The 
squirrel-coloured one became the fiercest buck I have ever had—he routed 
males nearly twice his size ; the slaty-blue, on the contrary, is extremely 
small and unobtrusive; and while the white and the yellow and white ones 
fed frequently, the others fed hurriedly at intervals, hiding away at other 
times. Weighed when six weeks old, they varied from nine to seventeen 
and a half ounces. 
By way of accounting for so much variation in the organic world, for the evo- 
lution of so many kinds of plants and animals since our planet was capable of 
sustaining life, it has been suggested that, at the outset, variation was both more 
common and more pronounced than it is now. I think the difference between the 
present and the past is rather that while, at the beginning, if five or six distinct 
varieties appeared they would all have a chance of establishing themselves, now, 
owing to almost every possible niche being occupied with forms admirably adapted 
for the particular environment, there is so much competition that it is almost 
impossible—almost a miracle—if a new variety manages to obtain a footing with- 
out supplanting an already existing variety. 
