Charles Darwin

“ Bees have been domesticated from an ancient period; if indeed their state can be considered one of domestication, for they search for their own food, with the exception of a little generally given to them during the winter. Their habitation is a hive instead of a hole in a tree. Bees, however, have been transported into almost every quarter of the world, so that climate ought to have produced whatever direct effect it is capable of producing. It is frequently asserted that the bees in different parts of Great Britain differ in size, colour, and temper ”

“ Although the domestic goose certainly differs somewhat from any known wild species, yet the amount of variation which it has undergone, as compared with most domesticated animals, is singularly small. This fact can be partially accounted for by selection not having come largely into play. Birds of all kinds which present many distinct races are valued as pets or ornaments; no one makes a pet of the goose ”

“ A large majority of capable judges are convinced that our geese are descended from the wild Grey-lag goose (A. ferus) ; the young of which can easily be tamed, [22] and are domesticated by the Laplanders. This species, when crossed with the domestic goose, produced in the Zoological Gardens, as I was assured in 1849, perfectly fertile offspring. [23] Yarrell [24] has observed that the lower part of the trachea of the domestic goose is sometimes flattened, and that a ring of white feathers sometimes surrounds the base of the beak. ”

“ I will not repeat the arguments used in the previous chapters on the improbability of man having in ancient times domesticated several species since become unknown or extinct, though ducks are not readily exterminated in the wild state;—on some of the supposed parent-species having had abnormal characters in comparison with all the other species of the genus, as with hook-billed and penguin ducks;—on all the breeds, as far as is known, being fertile together ”

“ The occurrence of a duck bred under so peculiar a climate as that of the Malayan archipelago, where the wild species does not exist, with exactly the same plumage as may occasionally be seen in our farm-yards, is a fact worth notice. ”

“ Waterhouse carefully compared, as he informs me, skins of the wild Indian and domestic bird, and they were identical in every respect, except that the plumage of the latter was perhaps rather thicker. Whether our birds are descended from those introduced into Europe in the time of Alexander, or have been subsequently imported, is doubtful. They do not breed very freely with us, and are seldom kept in large numbers,—circumstances which would greatly interfere with the gradual selection and formation of new breeds. ”

“ It seems well established [82] that in France the caterpillars of the races which produce white silk, and certain black caterpillars, have resisted, better than other races, the disease which has recently devastated the silk-districts. Lastly, the races differ constitutionally, for some do not succeed so well under a temperate climate as others; and a damp soil does not equally injure all the races. [83] From these various facts we learn that silk-moths, like the higher animals, vary greatly under long-continued domestication. ”

“ Dixon remarks, "that the duck had not at this time become a naturalised and prolific inmate of the Roman poultry-yard." The origin of the domestic duck from the wild species is recognised in nearly every language of Europe, as Aldrovandi long ago remarked, by the same name being applied to both. The wild duck has a wide range from the Himalayas to North America. It crosses readily with the domestic bird, and the crossed offspring are perfectly fertile.
Both in North America and Europe the wild duck has been found easy to tame and breed. ”

“ Besides mammals and birds, few animals belonging to the other great classes have been domesticated; but to show that it is an almost universal law that animals, when removed from their natural conditions of life, vary, and that races can be formed when selection is applied, it is necessary to say a few words on gold-fish, bees, and silk-moths. ”

“ It has been falsely asserted that Call-ducks hatch their eggs in less time than common ducks. [17] The Penguin duck is the most remarkable of all the breeds; the thin neck and body are carried erect; the wings are small; the tail is upturned; and the thigh-bones and metatarsi are considerably lengthened in proportion with the same bones in the wild duck. In five specimens examined by me there were only eighteen tail-feathers instead of twenty as in the wild duck; but I have also found only eighteen and nineteen tail-feathers in two Labrador ducks. ”

“ After the third generation his birds lost the elegant carriage of the wild species, and began to acquire the gait of the common duck. They increased in size in each generation, and their legs became less fine. The white collar round the neck of the mallard became broader and less regular, and some of the longer primary wing-feathers became more or less white. When this occurred, Mr. Hewitt always destroyed his old stock and procured fresh eggs from wild nests; so that he never bred the same family for more than five or six generations. ”

“ From these considerations there can hardly be a doubt that the wild duck is the parent of the common domestic kind; nor need we look to distinct species for the parentage of the more distinct breeds, namely, Penguin, Call, Hook-billed, Tufted, and Labrador ducks. ”

“ But the most important element in the production of the many now existing, much modified races, no doubt has been the close attention which has long been applied in many countries to every promising variation. ”

“ It is well known that several birds, belonging to different Orders, and inhabiting oceanic islands, have their wings greatly reduced in size and are incapable of flight. I suggested in my 'Origin of Species' that, as these birds are not persecuted by any enemies, the reduction of their wings has probably been caused by gradual disuse. ”

“ Labrador (or Canadian, or Buenos Ayres, or East Indian) ; plumage entirely black; beak broader, relatively to its length, than in the wild-duck; eggs slightly tinted with black. This sub-breed perhaps ought to be ranked as a breed; it includes two sub-varieties, one as large as the common domestic duck, which I have kept alive, and the other smaller and often capable of flight. [1] I presume it is this latter sub-variety which has been described in France [2] as flying well, being rather wild, and when cooked having the flavour of the wild-duck ”

“ As moths and butterflies of all kinds reared from wild caterpillars under confinement often have crippled wings, the same cause, whatever it may be, has probably acted on silk-moths, but the disuse of their wings during so many generations has, it may be suspected, likewise come into play. ”

“ The wild ducklings were from the first quite tame towards those who took care of them as long as they wore the same clothes, and likewise to the dogs and cats of the house. They would even snap with their beaks at the dogs, and drive them away from any spot which they coveted. But they were much alarmed at strange men and dogs. ”

“ Black caterpillars occasionally appear amongst those of the common kind, but in so variable a manner, that according to M. Robinet the same race will one year exclusively produce white caterpillars, and the next year many black ones; nevertheless, I have been informed by M. A. Bossi of Geneva, that, if these black caterpillars are separately bred from, they reproduce the same colour; but the cocoons and moths reared from them do not present any difference. The caterpillar in Europe ordinarily moults four times before passing into the cocoon stage ”

“ There is a feather-footed breed, and another with a kind of frill running down the breast. One other character deserves notice from being confined to one period of life and from being strictly inherited at the same period: namely, the wing and tail feathers in prize canaries being black, "but this colour is retained only until the first moult; once moulted, the peculiarity ceases." [48] Canaries differ much in disposition and character, and in some small degree in song. They produce eggs three or four times during the year. ”

“ Young birds are easily reared from eggs hatched under a bantam; but to succeed it is indispensable not to place the eggs of both the wild and tame duck under the same hen, for in this case "the young wild ducks die off, leaving their more hardy brethren in undisturbed possession of their foster-mother's care. ”

“ This remarkable uniformity in the hive-bee, wherever kept, may probably be accounted for by the great difficulty, or rather impossibility, of bringing selection into play by pairing particular queens and drones, for these insects unite only during flight. Nor is there any record, with a single partial exception, of any person having separated and bred from a hive in which the workers presented some appreciable difference. In order to form a new breed, seclusion from other bees would, as we now know, be indispensable ”

“ As the loquacity of the Call-duck is highly serviceable, these birds being used in decoys, this quality may have been increased by selection. For instance, Colonel Hawker says, if young wild-ducks cannot be got for a decoy, "by way of make-shift, select tame birds which are the most clamorous, even if their colour should not be like that of wild ones." ”

“ In several moths of this family the females have abortive wings, but no instance is known of the males being incapable of flight, for in this case the species could hardly have been perpetuated. In the silk-moth both sexes have imperfect, crumpled wings, and are incapable of flight ”

“ Bees also seem to differ in habits in different districts, for Dzierzon adds, "If many stocks with their offspring are more inclined to swarm, whilst others are richer in honey, so that some bee-keepers even distinguish between swarming and honey-gathering bees, this is a habit which has become second nature, caused by the customary mode of keeping the bees and the pasturage of the district. ”

“ The cocoon in the different races presents characteristic differences; being large or small;—nearly spherical with no constriction, as in the Race de Loriol, or cylindrical with either a deep or slight constriction in the middle;—with the two ends, or with one end alone, more or less pointed. ”

“ Mr. Wilmot has described [41] a white turkey-cock with a crest formed of "feathers about four inches long, with bare quills, and a tuft of soft white down growing at the end." Many of the young birds whilst young inherited this kind of crest, but afterwards it either fell off or was pecked out by the other birds. This is an interesting case, as with care a new breed might probably have been formed; and a topknot of this nature would have been to a certain extent analogous to that borne by the males in several allied genera, such as Euplocomus, Lophophorus, and Pavo. ”

“ It is a singular fact that this bird varies more in colour in the West Indies and on the Spanish Main, under a hot though humid climate, than in Europe. [43] The guinea-fowl has become thoroughly feral in Jamaica and in St. Domingo, [44] and has diminished in size; the legs are black, whereas the legs of the aboriginal African bird are said to be grey. This small change is worth notice on account of the often-repeated statement that all feral animals invariably revert in every character to their original type.
The Canary Bird. ”

“ A. Newton, states that, five or six years ago, a female bird, in all respects similar to the female of the black-shouldered kind, was produced from a stock of common peacocks in his possession, which during more than twenty years had not been crossed with birds of any other strain. ”

“ Whitby that the males of the moths bred by her used their wings more than the females, and could flutter downwards, though never upwards. She also states that, when the females first emerge from the cocoon, their wings are less expanded than those of the male. ”

“ DUCKS—GOOSE—PEACOCK—TURKEY—GUINEA-FOWL—CANARY-BIRD—GOLD-FISH—HIVE-BEES—SILK-MOTHS.
DUCKS, several breeds of—progress of domestication—origin of, from the common wild-duck—differences in the different breeds—osteological differences—effects of use and disuse on the limb-bones. GOOSE, anciently domesticated—little variation of—sebastopol breed. PEACOCK, origin of black-shouldered breed. TURKEY, breeds of—crossed with the united states species—effects of climate on. ”