The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Volume 1D. Appleton, 1898 - 495 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
aboriginal animals appearance bankiva Barbs beak Bechstein birds blue Blyth body bones bud-variation buds Carriers cattle cervical vertebra character Cochins colour Columbida common crest crossed cultivated descended distinct species dogs domestic pigeon domestic rabbits domestic races dovecot duck ears English Pouter fact fanciers Fantails feathers feet female feral flowers frontal bones fruit Gardener's Chron Gardener's Chronicle grafted Hist horses Hort hybrids inches India inherited instance Islands Jacobin kinds latter legs length livia lop-eared rabbits maize male mammæ natural nearly nectarine niata observed parent parent-form peach peculiar pigeons pigs plants plumage Polish fowls pollen Porto Santo Poultry Pouters produced propagated remarkable resemble reversion rock-pigeon Runts seed seedlings seen selection shape Short-faced Tumbler skin skull specimens sternum stripes sub-breeds Sub-race sub-varieties tail tail-feathers Tegetmeier trees tubers Turbits variable variation varieties vary vertebræ whilst wild rabbit wild rock-pigeon wings Zoolog
Popular passages
Page 94 - ... but during the great droughts, when so many animals perish, the niata breed is under a great disadvantage, and would be exterminated if not attended to; for the common cattle, like horses, are able just to keep alive, by browsing with their lips on twigs of trees and reeds ; this the niatas cannot so well do, as their lips do not join, and hence they are found to perish before the common cattle. This strikes me as a. good illustration of how little we are able to judge from the ordinary habits...
Page 26 - ... it is highly probable that the domestic dogs of the world are descended from two well-defined species of wolf (viz. C. lupus and C. lalrans), and from two or three other doubtful species (namely, the European, Indian, and North African wolves) : from at least one or two South American canine species ; from several races or species of jackal ; and perhaps from one or more extinct species.
Page 65 - Eng. translat., p. 2351 ~ the probability of the descent of all the existing races from a single, dun-coloured, more or less striped, primitive stock, to which our horses occasionally revert.
Page 6 - It has been said that I speak of natural selection as an active power or Deity; but who objects to an author speaking of the attraction of gravity as ruling the movements of the planets?
Page 10 - The archipelago, with its innumerable craters and bare streams of lava, appeared to be of recent origin ; and thus I fancied myself brought near to the very act of creation. I often asked myself how these many peculiar animals and plants had been produced : the simplest answer seemed to be that the inhabitants of the several islands had descended from each other, undergoing modification in the course of their descent ; and that all the inhabitants of the archipelago were descended from those of the...
Page 3 - Man, therefore, may be said to have been trying an experiment on a gigantic scale ; and it is an experiment which nature during the long lapse of time has incessantly tried.
Page 9 - In scientific investigations it is permitted to invent any hypothesis, and if it explains various large and independent classes of facts it rises to the rank of a well-grounded theory.
Page 2 - From a remote period, in all parts of the world, man has subjected many animals and plants to domestication or culture. Man has no power of altering the absolute conditions of life ; he cannot change the climate of any country ; he adds no...
Page 340 - ... duskier. Some of the seeds had even become yellow, and in their now rounded form they approached common European maize. In the third generation nearly all resemblance to the original and very distinct American parentform was lost. In the sixth generation this maize perfectly resembled a European variety, described as the second sub-variety of the fifth race.
Page 4 - ... an uneducated eye, he has effected wonderful changes and improvements. It can also be clearly shown that man, without any intention or thought of improving the breed, by preserving in each successive generation the individuals which he prizes most, and by destroying the worthless individuals, slowly, though surely, induces great changes. As the will of man thus comes into play, we can understand how it is that domesticated breeds show adaptation to his wants and pleasures. We can further understand...