[page] 58

DARWIN, CHARLES. The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication. 2vols, 8vo, pp .411 and 486. London: 1868.

The author's object is to give, under the head of each species, such facts as he has collected, showing the amount of variation it has undergone while under man's dominion. In one case only, that of the tame Pigeon, has he fully described the chief races, their history, the amount and nature of their differences, and the probable steps by which they have been formed. Tame Fowls and Ducks are also considered with considerable fulness. Of course this information is made to bear upon Mr. Darwin's well known theory as to the origin of species. What may be called the special part of this work occupies nearly the whole of the first volume; the remainder, including the consideration of the remarkable "hypothesis of Pangenesis," promulgated by the author, hardly comes within the range of a 'Record' like the present, and we naturally limit ourselves to an abstract of the principal results given by him with respect to the Fringillidæ, Columbidæ, Phasianidæ, and Anatidæ, which will be found under those heads respectively, only remarking that many most interesting facts are to be found in the second volume of this work, and premising, as a general statement, that he believes that the various domesticated animals of the families have each sprung from a single species [vide suprà "Mammalia," p. 2]. [Cf. Ibis, 1869, pp. 218, 219; Am. Nat. 1868, pp. 547-553; F.C. Noll, Zool. Garten, 1868, pp. 351, 352.]

DARWIN, CHARLES. The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication. [See also" GENERAL SUBJECT."]

Various interesting and remarkable osteological details with respect to Pigeons, Fowls, and Ducks are herein contained; and some are mentioned below, under Columbidæ, Phasianidæ, and Anatidæ.