our.[465] Recently a smaller and singular variety has been imported from
Sebastopol,[466] with the scapular feathers (as I hear from Mr. Tegetmeier,
who sent me specimens) greatly elongated, curled, and even spirally
twisted. The margins of these feathers are rendered plumose by the
divergence of the barbs and barbules, so that they resemble in some degree
those on the back of the black Australian swan. These feathers are likewise
remarkable from the central shaft, which is excessively thin and
transparent, being split into fine filaments, which, after running for a
space free, sometimes coalesce again. It is a curious fact that these
filaments are regularly clothed on each side with fine down or barbules,
precisely like those on the proper barbs of the feather. This structure of
the feathers is transmitted to half-bred birds. In _Gallus sonneratii_ the
barbs and barbules blend together, and form thin horny plates of the same
nature with the shaft: in this variety of the goose, the shaft divides into
filaments which acquire barbules, and thus resemble true barbs.

Although the domestic goose certainly differs somewhat from any known wild
species, yet the amount of variation which it has undergone, as compared
with most domesticated animals, is singularly small. This fact can be
partially accounted for by selection not having come largely into play.
Birds of all kinds which present many distinct races are valued as pets or
ornaments; no one makes a pet of the goose; the name, indeed, in more
languages than one, is a term of reproach. The goose is valued for its size
and flavour, for the whiteness of its feathers which adds to their value,
and for its prolificness and tameness. In all these points the goose
differs from the wild parent-form; and these are the points which have been
selected. Even in ancient times the Roman gourmands valued the liver of the
_white_ goose; and Pierre Belon[467] in 1555 speaks of two varieties, one
of which was larger, more fecund, and of a better colour than the other;
and he expressly states that good managers {290} attended to the colour of
their goslings, so that they might know which to preserve and select for
breeding.

THE PEACOCK.

This is another bird which has hardly varied under domestication, except in
sometimes being white or piebald. Mr. Waterhouse carefully compared, as he
informs me, skins of the wild Indian and domestic bird, and they were
identical in every respect, except