I do not think a case can be pointed out in which the
limits of variation under domestication are not up to or beyond those
already marked out in nature, only we generally get in the _species_ an
amount of change which in nature occurs only in the whole range of the
_genus_ or _family_.
The many cases, however, in which variation has gone far beyond nature
and has not yet stopped are ignored. For instance, no wild pomaceous
fruit is, I believe, so large as our apples, and no doubt they could be
got much larger if flavour, etc., were entirely neglected.
I may perhaps push "protection" too far sometimes, for it is my hobby
just now, but as the lion and the tiger are, I think, the only two
non-arboreal cats, I think the tiger stripe agreeing so well with its
usual habitat is at least a probable case.
I am rewriting my article on Birds' Nests for the new _Natural History
Review_.
I cannot tell you about the first appearance of _tears_, but it is very
early--the first week or two, I think. I can see the _Victoria Institute
Magazine_ at the London Library.
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