or more varied colors, greater or less size--these
form the whole extent of variety in the species; the skeleton of the
cat of Angora differs in no regular and constant circumstances from the
wild-cat of Europe...."

The most remarkable effects of the influence of man are produced upon
that animal which he has reduced most completely under subjection. Dogs
have been transported by mankind into every part of the world and have
submitted their action to his entire direction. Regulated in their
unions by the pleasure or caprice of their masters, the almost endless
varieties of dogs differ from one another in color, in length, and
abundance of hair, which is sometimes entirely wanting; in their natural
instincts; in size, which varies in measure as one to five, mounting in
some instances to more than a hundredfold in bulk; in the form of their
ears, noses, and tails; in the relative length of their legs; in the
progressive development of the brain, in several of the domesticated
varieties occasioning alterations even in the form of the head, some of
them having long, slender muzzles with a flat forehead, others having
short muzzles with a forehead convex, etc., insomuch that the apparent
difference between a mastiff and a water-spaniel and between a greyhound
and a pugdog are even more striking than between almost any of the wild
species of a genus........

It follows from these observations that animals have certain fixed and
natural characters which resist the effects of every kind of influence,
whether proceeding from natural causes or human interference; and we
have not the smallest reason to suspect that time has any more effect on
them than climate.

"I am aware that some naturalists lay prodigious stress upon the
thousands which they can call into action by a dash of their pens. In
such matters, however, our only way of judging as to the effects which
may be produced by a long period of time is by multiplying, as it were,
such as are produced by a shorter time. With this view I have endeavored
to collect all the ancient documents respecting the forms of animals;
and there are none equal to those furnished by the Egyptians, both in
regard to their antiquity and abundance. They have not only left us
representatives of animals, but even their identical bodies embalmed and
preserved in the catacombs.

"I have examined, with the greatest attention, the engraved figures of
quadrupeds and birds brought from Egypt to anc