DOMESTIC PIGEONS. 17 



account for our several domestic races by this process, we 

 must admit the former existence of the most extreme forms, 

 as the Italian greyhound, bloodhound, bull-dog, etc., in the 

 wild state. Moreover, the possibility of making distinct 

 races by crossing has been greatly exaggerated. Many cases 

 are on record showing that a race may be modified by occa- 

 sional crosses if aided by the careful selection of the 

 individuals which present the desired character; but to 

 obtain a race intermediate between two quite distinct races 

 would be very difficult. Sir J. Sebright expressly experi- 

 mented with this object and failed. The offspring from the 

 first cross between two pure breeds is tolerably and some- 

 times (as I have found with pigeons) quite uniform in 

 character, and every thing seems simple enough ; but when 

 these mongrels are crossed one with another for several gen- 

 erations, hardly two of them are alike, and then the difficulty 

 of the task becomes manifest. 



BREEDS OF THE DOMESTIC PIGEON, THEIR DIFFERENCES 



AND ORIGIN. 



Believing that it is always best to study some special 

 group, I have, after deliberation, taken up domestic pigeons. 

 I have kept every breed which I could purchase or obtain, 

 and have been most kindly favored with skins from several 

 quarters of the world, more especially by the Hon. W. 

 Elliot, from India, and by the Hon. C. Murray, from Persia. 

 Many treatises in different languages have been published 

 on pigeons, and some of them are very important as being 

 of considerable antiquity. I have associated with several 

 eminent fanciers and have been permitted to join two of the 

 London Pigeon Clubs. The diversity of the breeds is some- 

 thing astonishing. Compare the English carrier and the 

 short-faced tumbler, and see the wonderful difference in 

 their beaks, entailing corresponding differences in their 

 skulls. The carrier, more especially the male bird, is also 

 remarkable from the wonderful development of the carun- 

 culated skin about the head ; and this is accompanied by 

 greatly elongated eyelids, very large external orifices to the 

 nostrils, and a wide gape of mouth. The short-faced tum- 

 bler has a beak in outline almost like that of a finch ; and 

 the common tumbler has the singular inherited habit of 

 flying at a great height in a compact flock and tumbling in 

 t$.e air head 9Y er feftlSt The runt is a bird of grea^ size. 



