not see a chicken, when frightened,
take flight like a young pheasant. Hence I was led carefully to compare
the limb-bones of fowls, ducks, pigeons, and rabbits, with the same
bones in the wild parent-species. As the measurements and weights were
fully given in the earlier chapters, I need here only recapitulate the
results. With domestic pigeons, the length of the sternum, the
prominence of its crest, the length of the scapulae and furcula, the
length of the wings as measured from tip to tip of the radius, are all
reduced relatively to the same parts in the wild pigeon. The wing and
tail feathers, however, are increased in length, but this may have as
little connection with the use of the wings or tail, as the lengthened
hair on a dog with the amount of exercise which the breed has
habitually taken. The feet of pigeons, except in the long-beaked races,
are reduced in size. With fowls the crest of the sternum is less
prominent, and is often distorted or monstrous; the wing-bones have
become lighter relatively to the leg-bones, and are apparently a little
shorter in comparison with those of the parent-form, the _Gallus
bankiva_. With ducks, the crest of the sternum is affected in the same
manner as in the foregoing cases: the furcula, coracoids, and scapulae
are all reduced in weight relatively to the whole skeleton: the bones
of the wings are shorter and lighter, and the bones of the legs longer
and heavier, relatively to each other, and relatively to the whole
skeleton, in comparison with the same bones in the wild-duck. The
decreased weight and size of the bones, in the foregoing cases, is
probably the indirect result of the reaction of the weakened muscles on
the bones. I failed to compare the feathers of the wings of the tame
and wild duck; but Gloger[736] asserts that in the wild duck the tips
of the wing-feathers reach almost to the end of the tail, whilst in the
domestic duck they often hardly reach to its base. He remarks, also, on
the greater thickness of the legs, and says that the swimming membrane
between the toes is reduced; but I was not able to detect this latter
difference.

With the domesticated rabbit the body, together with the whole
skeleton, is generally larger and heavier than in the wild animal, and
the leg-bones are heavier in due proportion; but whatever standard