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argument to the formation of the head, and there is some 
justification for this inference in the following fact:— 
“Nathusius has remarked (and the observation is an interesting 
one) that the peculiar form of the skull and body in the most highly 
cultivated races is not characteristic of any one race, but is common 
to all when improved up to the same standard. Thus the large 
bodied, long-eared English breeds with a convex back, and the small 
bodied, short-eared Chinese breeds with a concave back, when bred 
to the same state of perfection, nearly resemble each other in the 
form of the head and body. . . . With most domestic animals 
the result of selection has been divergence of character, here it has 
been convergence.”—(The Variation, vol. i., p. 73.) 
Speaking of feral pigs, i.e., of pigs which have been 
domesticated, but have subsequently been allowed to run 
wild, Mr. Darwin says :— 
“ The young, as we have just seen, reacquire their longitudinal 
stripes, and the boars invariably reassume their tusks. They revert 
also in the general shape of their bodies, and in the length of their 
legs and muzzles, to the state of the wild animal. From these several 
facts we see that with pigs, when feral, there is a strong tendency to 
revert to the wild type ; but that this tendency is largely governed by 
the nature of the climate, amount of exercise, and other causes of 
change to which they have been subjected.”—(The Variation, vol. z., 
pp. 77-78.) 
The Niata cattle could not have been developed apart 
from changed conditions. They could scarcely have been 
developed by Natural Selection ; for it is not easy to 
understand how such a conformation could have been 
largely profitable. In all probability the phenomenon is 
due to the abundance of food arising from a luxuriant 
pasturage. So long as this condition underwent no change, 
the modification would not be injurious ; but if from any 
cause they could only secure a short pasture, the change 
would be fatal. 
“ When the pasture is tolerably long these cattle feed, as well as 
common cattle, with their tongue and palate ; but during the great 
droughts, when so many animals perish on the pampas, the Niata 
breed lies under a great disadvantage, and would, if not attended to,