he
quantity of vegetable food required by this quadruped would render its
maintenance in the temperate zones too costly, and in the arctic
impossible.

Among the changes superinduced by man, none appear, at first sight, more
remarkable than the perfect tameness of certain domestic races. It is
well known that, at however early an age we obtain possession of the
young of many unreclaimed races, they will retain, throughout life, a
considerable timidity and apprehensiveness of danger; whereas, after one
or two generations, the descendants of the same stock will habitually
place the most implicit confidence in man. There is good reason,
however, to suspect that such changes are not without analogy in a state
of nature; or, to speak more correctly, in situations where man has not
interfered.

We learn from Mr. Darwin, that in the Galapagos archipelago, placed
directly under the equator, and nearly 600 miles west of the American
continent, all the terrestrial birds, as the finches, doves, hawks, and
others, are so tame, that they may be killed with a switch. One day,
says this author, "a mocking bird alighted on the edge of a pitcher
which I held in my hand, and began quietly to sip the water, and allowed
me to lift it with the vessel from the ground." Yet formerly, when the
first Europeans landed, and found no inhabitants in these islands, the
birds were even tamer than now: already they are beginning to acquire
that salutary dread of man which in countries long settled is natural
even to young birds which have never received any injury. So in the
Falkland Islands, both the birds and foxes are entirely without fear of
man; whereas, in the adjoining mainland of South America, many of the
same species of birds are extremely wild; for there they have for ages
been persecuted by the natives.[822]

Dr. Richardson informs us, in his able history of the habits of the
North American animals, that, "in the retired parts of the mountains
where the hunters had seldom penetrated, there is no difficulty in
approaching the Rocky Mountain sheep, which there exhibit _the
simplicity of character so remarkable in the domestic species_; but
where they have been often fired at, they are exceedingly wild, alarm
their companions, on the approach of danger, by a hissing noise, and
scale the rocks with a speed and agility that baffle pursuit."[823]

It is probable, therefore, that as man, in diffusing himself over the
globe, has tamed many wi