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But besides the crow and the rook
there are about thirty other kinds of birds in various parts of the
world, all so much like our species that they receive the common name of
crows; and some of them differ less from each other than does our crow
from our rook. These are all _species_ of the genus Corvus, and were
therefore believed to have been always as distinct as they are now,
neither more nor less, and to have each descended from one pair of
ancestral crows of the same identical species, which themselves had an
unknown "origin." Of violets there are more than a hundred different
kinds in various parts of the world, all differing very slightly from
each other and forming distinct _species_ of the genus Viola. But, as
these also each produce their like and do not intermingle, it was
believed that every one of them had always been as distinct from all the
others as it is now, that all the individuals of each kind had descended
from one ancestor, but that the "origin" of these hundred slightly
differing ancestors was unknown. In the words of Sir John Herschel,
quoted by Mr.


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