It should not, however, be overlooked that certain rather strongly marked
variations, which no one would rank as mere individual differences,
frequently recur owing to a similar organisation being similarly acted on--
of which fact numerous instances could be given with our domestic
productions. In such cases, if the varying individual did not actually
transmit to its offspring its newly-acquired character, it would
undoubtedly transmit to them, as long as the existing conditions remained
the same, a still stronger tendency to vary in the same manner. There can
also be little doubt that the tendency to vary in the same manner has often
been so strong that all the individuals of the same species have been
similarly modified without the aid of any form of selection. Or only a
third, fifth, or tenth part of the individuals may have been thus affected,
of which fact several instances could be given. Thus Graba estimates that
about one-fifth of the guillemots in the Faroe Islands consist of a variety
so well marked, that it was formerly ranked as a distinct species under the
name of Uria lacrymans. In cases of this kind, if the variation were of a
beneficial nature, the original form would soon be supplanted by the
modified form, through the survival of the fittest.
To the effects of intercrossing in eliminating variations of all kinds, I
shall have to recur; but it may be here remarked that most animals and
plants keep to their proper homes, and do not needlessly wander about; we
see this even with migratory birds, which almost always return to the same
spot.
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