Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/440

408 summer and winter coat—for that is obvious—but also with particular districts."

In the New Hebrides the soil of nearly all the islands consists of a "rich volcanic mould." Pigs, Fowls, and Dogs are said to have been brought into the islands within the last one hundred years, and Capt. Cook has the credit of having introduced the first two. The Fowls have gone wild in the bush, and have " become small and of bantam-like appearance, and are generally of a brownish colour, with all white tail feathers." This is only approximate evidence; but more direct testimony is afforded by Mr. Lydekker, who states: "The rich red soil of Devonshire is tenanted by a breed of cattle readily distinguished by the deep red colour of their hair." According to the same authority, in certain parts of America, the Falkland Islands, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries, the cattle introduced from Europe have run wild, and form vast herds. Those found in Texas and on the Argentine pampas have become of a nearly uniform dark brownish red colour; while in the Ladrone or Mariana Islands, in the Pacific Ocean, all the wild cattle are white with black ears." It would be interesting to know the prevalent surface colour of the soil at Porto Santo, an island near Madeira. To relate a well-known fact, in the year 1419 a few Rabbits born on board ship of a tame Spanish Rabbit were put on the island. The animals not only increased so enormously as to become a pest, but in the course of four hundred and fifty years have developed into a distinct variety or species, which is distinguished among other acquired peculiarities of structure and habits by a "peculiar colour." Mr. Lydekker confirms this statement, and states that the descendants of these Rabbits "have now formed a breed distinguished by their small size, the reddish colour of the fur of the upper parts and the grey tints of that below. So different indeed are these Rabbits from the ordinary kind that the two kinds will not even breed together; and if the history of the Porto Santo race were not known, it would undoubtedly be re-