ABSTRACT
In regard to ducks and rabbits, the breeds of which differ considerably from each other in structure, author does not doubt that they all have descended from the common wild duck and rabbit. They believe that every race which breeds true, let the distinctive characters be ever so slight, has had its wild prototype. Certainly, a breed intermediate between two very distinct breeds could not be got without extreme care and long-continued selection; nor can author find a single case on record of a permanent race having been thus formed. The diversity of the breeds is something astonishing. The runt is a bird of great size, with long, massive beak and large feet; some of the sub-breeds of runts have very long necks, others very long wings and tails, others singularly short tails. Livingstone states how much good domestic breeds are valued by the negroes of the interior of Africa who have not associated with Europeans.
