Show A Wingless Fowl THE organic world is in a state state of 01 of unstable eq equilibrium This truth is so clearly recognized by practical people that constant and continued variation is not only regarded as a matter of course but is always looked for The farmer who succeeds in raising matched colts in two successive years from the same parents regards himself as being unusually unusually unusually un un- usually fortunate fortuna te and immediately places a somewhat higher value on each one than he would would- have placed had they not so nearly resembled each other In Inmost Inmost Inmost most cases the variation from the parent form is very slight but occasionally nature takes an unusually long step and at atone one stride she originates not only a new species but a new genus and possibly even a greater variation than is implied by that term One of these long steps is well illustrated by a Plymouth Rock rooster which was re recently recently recently re- re sold to one of the poultry dealers in this city Outwardly at first glance this fowl looks not unlike others of his kind but a closer examination reveals the fact that he is wingless Where his wings should be are short sturn stumps stumps- ps which can only only- be detected detect d b by a close examination So far as this individual birJ bird is concerned he has at one bound passed from the normal vertebrate condition con r of a limbed four-limbed creature to the very abnormal form of a two-limbed two creature Whether this peculiarity is simply a sport which must end as it began with this individual or whether it m might be made the starting point of ofa a line of birds birds- which would constitute an absolutely new order are questions easy to ask but absolutely impossible to answer without submitting them to the great source of all scientific knowledge knowledge knowledge knowl edge experiment Unfortunately this probably will probably will not be done This c case case se reminds one of the ancon or otter or-otter otter breed of sheep which h originated in in- Massachusetts in Massachusetts in 1791 In that ye year r a single S lamb Jamb was born which born which had a along along long body and short crooked legs As this animal could not jump over the stone wall fences of its owner it was especially prized by him and such of its progeny as inherited its its its' peculiar form were saved and in a few years this singular breed of sheep was well established It is said by com competent naturalists that had the origin of these sheep been unknown they would have been placed in a genus separate from that to which the common sheep is assigned Unfortunately these curious animals are now extinct Originating as they did to fill want of a long-felt long practical cal men they were allowed allowed- to become extinct when other kinds were found to tobe tobe tobe be more profitable C. C A. A Whiting |