Richardson figures these appendages on the old "Irish greyhound pig," and they are said by Nathusius to appear occasionally in all the long-eared races.

Mr.Darwin observes,[82] "As no wild pigs are known to have analogous appendages, we have at present no reason to {100} suppose that their appearance is due to reversion; and if this be so, we are forced to admit that somewhat complex, though apparently useless structures may be suddenly developed without the aid of selection." Again, "Climate directly affects the thickness of the skin and hair" of cattle.[83] In the English climate an individual Porto Santo rabbit[84] recovered the proper colour of its fur in rather less than four years.

The effect of the climate of India on the turkey is considerable.

Mr.Blyth[85] describes it as being much degenerated in size, "utterly incapable of rising on the wing," of a black colour, and "with long pendulous appendages over the beak enormously developed." Mr.Darwin again tells us that there has suddenly appeared in a bed of common broccoli a peculiar variety, faithfully transmitting its newly acquired and remarkable characters;[86] also that there have been a rapid transformation and transplantation of American varieties of maize with a European variety;[87] that certainly "the Ancon and Manchamp breeds of sheep," and that (all but certainly) Niata cattle, turnspit and pug dogs, jumper and frizzled fowls, short-faced tumbler pigeons, hook-billed ducks, &c., and a multitude of vegetable varieties, have suddenly appeared in nearly the same state as we now see them.[88] Lastly, Mr.Darwin tells us, that there has been an occasional development (in five distinct cases) in England of the "japanned" or "black-shouldered peacock" (_Pavo nigripennis_), a distinct species, according to Dr.Sclater,[89] yet arising in Sir J.Trevelyan's flock composed entirely of the common kind, and increasing, "_to the extinction of the previously existing breed_."[90] Mr.Darwin's only explanation of the phenomena (on the supposition of the species being distinct) is by{101} reversion, owing to a supposed ancestral cross.

But he candidly admits, "I have heard of no other such case in the animal or vegetable kingdom." On the supposition of its being only a variety, he observes, "The case is the most remarkable ever recorded of the abrupt appearance of a new form, which so closely resembles a true species, that it has deceived one of the most experienced of living ornithologists." As to plants, M.C.Naudin[91] has given the following instances of the sudden origination of apparently permanent forms.