170 



DOMESTIC PIGEONS: 



Chap. V. 



characters of the several breeds, namely, that they are often 

 most strongly displayed in the male bird. In Carriers, when 

 the males and females are exhibited in separate pens, the 

 wattle is plainly seen to be much more developed in the 

 males, though I have seen a hen Carrier belonging to Mr. 

 Haynes heavily wattled. Mr. Tegetmeier informs me that, 

 in twenty Barbs in Mr. P. H. Jones's possession, the males 

 had generally the largest eye- wattles ; Mr. Esquilant also 

 believes in this rule, but Mr. H. Weir, a first-rate judge, 

 entertains some doubt on the subject. Male Pouters distend 

 their crops to a much greater size than do the females ; I 

 have, however, seen a hen in the possession of Mr. Evans 

 which pouted excellently ; but this is an unusual circumstance. 

 Mr. Harrison Weir, a successful breeder of prize Fantails, 

 informs me that his male birds often have a greater number 

 of tail-feathers than the females. Mr. Eaton asserts 32 that 

 if a cock and hen Tumbler were of equal merit, the hen would 

 be worth double the money ; and as pigeons always pair, so 

 that an equal number of both sexes is necessary for repro- 

 duction, this seems to show that high merit is rarer in the 

 female than in the male. In the development of the frill in 

 Turbits, of the hood in Jacobins, of the tuft in Trumpeters, 

 of tumbling in Tumblers, there is no difference between the 

 males and females. I may here add a rather different case, 

 namely, the existence in France 33 of a wine-coloured variety 

 of the Pouter, in which the male is generally chequered with 

 black, whilst the female is never so chequered. Dr. Chapuis 

 also remarks 34 that in certain light-coloured pigeons the 

 males have their feathers striated with black, and these striae 

 increase in size at each moult, so that the male ultimately 

 becomes spotted with black. With Carriers, the wattle, both 



32 A Treatise, &c, p. 10. 



33 Boitard and Corbie, ' Les Pigeons,' 

 &c, 1824, p. 173. 



34 ' Le Pigeon Voyageur Beige,' 

 1865, p. 87. I have given in my 

 ' Descent of Man ' (6th edit. p. 466) 

 some curious cases, on the authority 

 of Mr. Tegetmeier, of silver-coloured 

 (i. e. very pale blue) birds being 



generally femnles, and of the ease 

 with which a race thus characterise.} 

 could be produced. Bonizzi (see 

 ' Variazioni dei Columbi domestici :' 

 Padova, 1873) states that certain 

 coloured spots are often different in 

 the two sexes, and the certain tints 

 are commoner in females than in male 

 pigeons. 



