Origin of Species Variorum

→ the feet of a duck 1872

a duck's feet, which might represent those of a bird sleeping in a natural pond, 1859

a ducks feet, which might represent those of a bird sleeping in a natural pond, 1860

a duck's feet 1861 1866

a ducks feet 1869

→ OMIT 1869 1872

would be sure to alight on a pool or rivulet, 1859 1860 1861 1866

→ point, would be sure to alight on a pool or rivulet. 1872

point. 1859 1860 1861 1866

point would be sure to alight on a pool or rivulet. 1869

→ been blown by 1872

flown with 1859 1860 1861 1866

been blown with 1869

→ illustrated, according to 1872

shown, as remarked by 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

→ wander more than those of any other; and they 1872

I can show are the greatest wanderers, and 1859 1860

I can show, are the greatest wanderers, and 1861 1866 1869

→ on their feet would 1872

would 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

→ and when gaining the 1872

their feet; when making 1859 1860 1861

their feet; and when making 1866 1869

I have

quite

....

unintentionally stocked the one with fresh-water shells from the other. But another agency is perhaps more effectual: I suspended →the feet of a duck in an aquarium, where many ova of fresh-water shells were hatching; and I found that numbers of the extremely minute and

just hatched

just-hatched

shells crawled on the feet, and clung to them so firmly that when taken out of the water they could not be jarred off, though at a somewhat more advanced age they would voluntarily drop off. These

just hatched

just-hatched

molluscs, though aquatic in their nature, survived on the

ducks

duck's

feet, in damp air, from twelve to

twenty hours;

twenty-hours;

and in this length of time a duck or heron might fly at least six or seven hundred miles, and →OMIT if blown across

sea

the sea

to an oceanic

island

island,

or to any other distant →point, would be sure to alight on a pool or rivulet. Sir Charles Lyell

also

....

informs me that a

Dyticus

Dytiscus

has been caught with an Ancylus (a fresh-water shell like a limpet) firmly adhering to it; and a water-beetle of the same family, a Colymbetes, once flew on board the 'Beagle,' when forty-five miles distant from the nearest land: how much farther it might have →been blown by a favouring gale no one can tell.

With respect to plants, it has long been known what enormous ranges many

fresh-water

fresh-water,

and even

marsh-species

marsh-species,

marsh species,

have, both over continents and to the most remote oceanic islands. This is strikingly →illustrated, according to Alph. de Candolle, in

large

those large

groups of terrestrial plants, which have

only a

....

very few aquatic members; for

these

the

latter seem immediately to acquire, as if in consequence, a

very

....

wide range. I think favourable means of dispersal explain this fact. I have before mentioned that earth

occasionally,

occasionally

though rarely,

....

adheres in some quantity to the feet and beaks of birds. Wading birds, which frequent the muddy edges of ponds, if suddenly flushed, would be the most likely to have muddy feet. Birds of this

order,

order

→wander more than those of any other; and they are occasionally found on the most remote and barren islands

the open ocean; they would not be likely to alight on the surface of the sea, so that

the

any

dirt →on their feet would not be washed

off

off;

→and when gaining the land, they would be sure to fly to their natural fresh-water haunts. I do not believe that botanists are aware how charged the mud of ponds is with

seeds:

seeds;

I have tried several little experiments, but will here give only the most striking case: I took in February three

table-spoonfuls

tablespoonfuls

of mud from three different points, beneath water, on the edge of a little

pond;

pond:

this mud when

dry

dried

weighed only

6 3/4

6¾

ounces; I kept it covered up in my study for six months, pulling up and counting each plant as it grew; the plants were of many kinds, and were altogether 537 in number; and yet the viscid mud was all