se circumstances, if our domesticated animals did not undergo change of
some kind, the result would be quite opposed to the conclusions arrived at
in this work. Nevertheless, I do not doubt that the simple fact of animals
and plants becoming feral, does cause some tendency to reversion to the
primitive state; though this tendency has been much exaggerated by some
authors.

{33}

I will briefly run through the recorded cases. With neither horses nor
cattle is the primitive stock known; and it has been shown in former
chapters that they have assumed different colours in different
countries. Thus the horses which have run wild in South America are
generally brownish-bay, and in the East dun-coloured; their heads have
become larger and coarser, and this may be due to reversion. No careful
description has been given of the feral goat. Dogs which have run wild
in various countries have hardly anywhere assumed a uniform character;
but they are probably descended from several domestic races, and
aboriginally from several distinct species. Feral cats, both in Europe
and La Plata, are regularly striped; in some cases they have grown to
an unusually large size, but do not differ from the domestic animal in
any other character. When variously-coloured tame rabbits are turned
out in Europe, they generally reacquire the colouring of the wild
animal; there can be no doubt that this does really occur, but we
should remember that oddly-coloured and conspicuous animals would
suffer much from beasts of prey and from being easily shot; this at
least was the opinion of a gentleman who tried to stock his woods with
a nearly white variety; and when thus destroyed, they would in truth be
supplanted by, instead of being transformed into, the common rabbit. We
have seen that the feral rabbits of Jamaica, and especially of Porto
Santo, have assumed new colours and other new characters. The best
known case of reversion, and that on which the widely-spread belief in
its universality apparently rests, is that of pigs. These animals have
run wild in the West Indies, South America, and the Falkland Islands,
and have everywhere acquired the dark colour, the thick bristles, and
great tusks of the wild boar; and the young have reacquired
longitudinal stripes. But even in the case of the pig, Roulin describes
the half-wild animals in differe