SWANS, 174 THE ORIGINAL WILD ROCK DOVE (_Columba livia_) AND SOME OF ITS DOMESTIC DESCENDANTS, 175 TURTLE DOVES, 177 THE GIANT CROWNED PIGEON OF INDIA, 178 THE ENGLISH PHEASANT, 181 THE FALCONER'S FAVORITE--PEREGRINE FALCON, 184 THE BANDIT'S BROOD, 186 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS INTRODUCTION One of the effects of the modern advance in natural science has been greatly to increase the attention which is devoted to the influences that the conditions of diverse peoples have had upon their development. Man is no longer looked upon, as he was of old, as a being which had been imposed upon the earth in a sudden and arbitrary manner, set to rule the world into which he had been sent as a master. We now see him as one of the myriad species which has won its way by powers of mind out of darkness and the great struggle to the place of command. The way in which this creature, weak in body and exceedingly dependent on his surroundings, has in the modern geologic epoch come forth from the mass of the lower animals, is by far the most impressive and as yet the most unexplained phenomenon which the geologist has to consider. It is not likely that the marvellous advancement can be accounted for by any single cause; it is probably due, as are most of the great evolutions, to the concurrence of many influences; but among these which make for advance, we clearly have to reckon the animals and plants which man has learned to associate with his work of the household and the fields.