Show EVOLUTION AND partridges Sl neolar chaffi ea la the th e burdg in tha cantry can try A striking example of the ejects of environment and changed conditions of life upon the forms of animals is furnished by a species of partridge living in the canary islands about four hundred years ago the spaniards introduced the red legged partridge from europe into these islands and the bird has continued to flourish there but as recent examination proves it has undergone modifications clearly brought about by the conditions under which it lives its hack has turned from russet color to grey this looks like a cabe of protective coloration since the bird passes its life amid fray volcanic rocks then its beak has become one fourth longer and thicker than that of its ancestor ce stor and of its european relatives and its legs also als o have increased in length and grown stouter these changes ari exactly such as needed to suit it to the life that it is now compelled to lead amid the rocks and on ahe mountain sides of the islands where a more vigorous physical development is required than was needed upon the plains of england and france As has been remarked if auch changes can be wrought by nature in the animal form in four hundred years what might not have been accomplished in tour hundred centuries |