OCR Text |
Show 286 DOMESTIC DUCKR. CHAT'. V!Jl. ·----------·- -···-----· ------.-·-------~··------·- - 1 Weight of cnttr I Sk •teton. I (~~3. ~~~~·c F~ila~~~~; Fe':,~,\~t;~i~ta. Or n~ Name of Breed. removed from euch and Metatarsus. I Rkclcton, as it had I twen accid ntally lo"t ~·~,~~----- - - t Oruins. Wild m111lard Aylesbury.. ·· Tufted (Duteh) Penguin .. · · · · Call (from Mr. Fox) Uruln ~ . 83\) L!"J25 14.04: 87L 7L7 ;,4: 1G'~ 111 7:i 57 I W<.·ightof I llnnwru ~ . Weight of Sl<cl<•ton Hudlut~ nnd 1 as above. Uloa, and Mcta" arpus. ------ OrainB. 8:)9 Wild mnJlnru . . Ayl esbury. . . . 1925,, 'l'ul"te<l \Dutch) · · 1 HO<s: Pcn~uin . . . . · · · · 871 Call (fi·orn Mr. Bn.kcr) :: I !lH ---- (JrainH. 97 204: 1'1.8 no 100 92 1000 : G4: LOOO : 8!1 1000 : 79 1000 : 8G 1000 : 7U 1000 : 115 1000 : 105 1000 : 105 1000 : 103 1000 : 10!1 1000 : 12!1 Coil (!'rom Mr. Fox) 1 7l:l -----·------------------ · f aso a plain reduction in the weight table we soc, ~ith t.h? oxcopdl~t 0 n~n~o~bt Juts resulted from their lessened of the bonos of tho wJ_nrr, an us 1 . f tho Call-ducks, is in truth 1.1 o Tho one exceptional case, name y, In on~ o . . . . t· c thi·s bird was constantly m tho habit of flymg about' no oxcop .10n, 101' • ' d d fl £ · 1 and I have seen it day after day _ris~ fr~~ m[ gro~: t%.:nCall~d:~k\::r~ time in circles of more tho.n 11 nnle m w.ame er: · · · . · . l no docroo.so, but o.n actual increase m tho wmght_of the wrng- ~o:~st r0~.,Iively to those of tho wild duck; and this probably 1s consequent tl, • 1 blo lightness and thinness of o.ll tho bones of the skeleton. on 10 romar ca ' 1 1 f 'ld duck and L tl I weighed tho furcula, coracoids, anc sco.p~ o. o . a Wl . o.s y' d t' d k and I found that thorr wmght, rolahvcly to of o. common omos JC nc ' h f t . hty that of tho who1o skeleton, was o.s one hundred in t. o orm~r o CJg - . . tho latter. this shows that those bones in tho domestiC duck have ~~~~ ~chlCcd o1o~on ;or cont. of their due propor~ioual weig~t. The prominence of tho crest of tho sternum, relatively to 1ts length, 1~d o.l~~ ~uch reduced in o.ll tho domestic broods. These changes have evl en y een caused by the lcRsenod 11Ro of the wingR. It is well known that several birds, bclongi_ng ~o different Orders, and inhabiting oceanic islands, ha:e their wmgs great~y reduced in size and are incapable of fl1ght. I suggested m my ' Origin of Species' that, as the~e bi_rds are not pers~cuted by any enemies, the reduction of theu wmgs ha~ probably beeJ1 caused by gradual disuse. Hence, during the ear her Rtages of thr C IIAP. VIII. DOMESTIC GOOSE. 287 process of reduction, such birds might be expected to resemble in tho state of their organs of flight our domesticated ducks. rrhis is the case with the water-hen (Gallinula nesiotis) of Tristan d'Acunha, which "can flutter a little, but obviously uses its legs, and not its wings, as a modo of escape." Now Mr. Sclater 19 finds in this bird that tho wings, sternum, and coracoids, are all reduced in length, and the crest of the sternum in depth, in comparison with the same bones in the European water-hen (G. chloropus ). On the other hand, the thigh-bones and pel vis are increased in length, the former by four lines, relatively to the same bonos in the common water-hen. Hence in the skeleton of this natural species nearly tl1e same changes have occurred, only carried a little further, as with our domestic ducks, and in this latter case I presume no one will dispute that they have resulted from the lessoned use of the wings and the increased use of the legs. THE GoosE. THIS bird deserves some notice, as hardly any other anciently domesticated bird or quadruped bas varied so Ettie. That geese were anciently domesticated we know from certain verses in Homer; and from these birds having been kept (388 B.c.) in the Capitol at Rome as sac:red to Juno, which sacredness implies great antiquity.20 That the goose has varied in some degree, we may infer from naturalists not being unanimous with respect to its wild parent-form; though the difficulty is chiefly due to the existence of three or four closely allied wild European species.21 A large majority of capable judges are convinced that our geese are descended from the wild Grey-lag goose (A. ferus); the young of which can easily be tamed,22 and are domesticated by the Laplanders. This species, when crossed with the domestic goose, produced in the Zoological Gardens, as I was assured in 10 'Proc. Zoolog. Soc.,' 1861 , p. 261. 20 'Ceylon,' by Sir J. E. Tennent, 1859, vol. i. p. 4:85 ; also J. Crawfurd on the 'Relation of Domest. Animnls to Civilisation,' read before Brit. Assoc., 1860. See nlso 'Ornamental Poultry,' by Rev. E. S. Dh:on, 1848, p. 132. The goose figur cl on the Egyptian monuments seems to hRve been the Reel goose of Egypt. 21 Macgillivray's • British Birds,' vol. iv. p. 593. 22 Mr. A. Strickland ('Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.,' 3rd Series, vol. iii. 1859, p. 122) reared some young wild geese, and found them in habits and in all characters identical with the domestic goose. |