DOMESTIC PIGEONS. 23 



record of pigeons is in the fifth Egyptian dynasty, about 

 3000 B.C., as was pointed out to me by Professor Lepsius ; 

 but Mr. Birch informs me that pigeons are given in a bill 

 of fare in the previous dynasty. In the time of the 

 Romans, as we hear from Pliny, immense prices were given 

 for pigeons ; " nay, they are come to this pass, that they 

 can reckon up their pedigree and race." Pigeons were 

 much valued by Akber Khan, in India, about the year 

 1600 ; never less than 20,000 pigeons were taken with the 

 court. " The monarchs of Iran and Turan sent him some 

 very rare birds ; " and, continues the courtly historian, 

 "His Majesty, by crossing the breeds, which method was 

 never practised before, has improved them astonishingly." 

 About this same period the Dutch were as eager about 

 pigeons as were the old Romans. The paramount impor- 

 tance of these considerations in explaining the immense 

 amount of variation which pigeons have undergone, will 

 likewise be obvious when we treat of selection. We shall 

 then, also, see how it is that the several breeds so often 

 have a somewhat monstrous character. It is also a most 

 favorable circumstance for the production of distinct breeds, 

 that male and female pigeons can be easily mated for life ; 

 and thus different breeds can be kept together in the same 

 aviary. 



I have discussed the probable origin of domestic pigeons 

 at some, yet quite insufficient, length j because when I first 

 kept pigeons and watched the several kinds, well knowing 

 how truly they breed, I felt fully as much difficulty in 

 believing that since they had been domesticated they had 

 all proceeded from a common parent, as any naturalist could 

 in coming to a similar conclusion in regard to the many 

 species of finches, or other groups of birds, in nature. One 

 circumstance has struck me much ; namely, that nearly all 

 the breeders of the various domestic animals and the culti- 

 vators of plants, with whom I have conversed, or whose 

 treatises I have read, are firmly convinced that the several 

 breeds to which each has attended, are descended from so 

 many aboriginally distinct species. Ask, as I have asked, a 

 celebrated raiser of Hereford cattle, whether his cattle might 

 not have descended from Long-horns, or both from a common 

 parent-stock, and he will laugh }~ou to scorn. I have never 

 met a pigeon, or poultry, or duck, or rabbit fancier, who was 

 not fully convinced that each main breed was descended 

 from a distinct species. Van Mons, in his treatise on pears 



