202 



DOMESTIC PIGEONS : 



Chap. VI. 



are crossed with pigeons of any other breed, the mongrels are 

 extremely fertile and hardy. 20 MM. Boitard and Corbie 21 affirm, 

 after their great experience, that the more distinct the breeds 

 are which are crossed, the more productive are their mongrel 

 offspring. I admit that the doctrine first broached by Pallas 

 is highly probable, if not actually proved, namely, that closely 

 allied species, which in a state of nature or when first captured 

 would have been in some degree sterile if crossed, lose this 

 sterility after a long course of domestication ; yet when we 

 consider the great difference between such races as Pouters, 

 Carriers, Runts, Fantails, Turbits, Tumblers, &c, the fact of 

 their perfect, or even increased, fertility when intercrossed in 

 the most complicated manner becomes a strong argument in 

 favour of their having all descended from a single species. 

 This argument is rendered much stronger when we hear (I 

 append in a note 22 all the cases which I have collected) that 



cases of reported sterility in the off- 

 spring of certain races when crossed. 

 Pistor (' Das Ganze der Feldtau- 

 benzucht,' 1831, s. 15) asserts that the 

 mongrels from Barbs and Fantails 

 are sterile : I have proved this to be 

 erroneous, not only by crossing those 

 hybrids with several other hybrids of 

 the same parentage, but by the more 

 severe test of pairing brother and 

 sister hybrids inter se, and they were 

 perfectly fertile. Temminck has stated 

 (' Hht. Nat. Ge'n. des Pigeons,' torn. i. 

 p. 197) that the Turbit or Owl will 

 not cross readily with other breeds : 

 but my Turbits crossed, when left free 

 with Almond Tumblers and with 

 Trumpeters ; the same thing has 

 occurred (Rev. E. S. Dixon. ' The 

 Dovecot,' p. 107) between Turbits and 

 Dovecots and Nuns. I have crossed 

 Turbits with Barbs, as has M. Boitard 

 (p. 34), who says the hybrids were 

 vory fertile. Hybrids from a Turbit 

 and Fantail have been known to breed 

 inter se (Riedel, ' Taubenzucht,' s. 25, 

 and Bechstein, ' Naturgesch. Deutsch.' 

 B. iv. s. 44. Turbits (Riedel, s. 26) 

 have been crossed with Pouters and 

 with Jacobins, and with a hybrid 



Jacobin-trumpeter (Riedel, s. 27)* 

 The latter author has, however, made 

 some vague statements (s. 22) on the 

 sterility of Turbits when crossed with 

 certain other crossed breeds. But I 

 have little doubt that the Rev. E. S. 

 Dixon's explanation of such statements 

 is correct, viz. that individual birds 

 both with Turbits and other breeds are 

 occasionally sterile. 



20 ' Das Ganze der Taubenzucht,' 

 s. 18. 



21 ' Les Pigeons,' &c, p. 35. 



22 Domestic pigeons pair readily 

 with the allied C. cenas (Bechstein, 

 ' Naturgesch. Deutschlands,' B. iv. s. 

 3) ; and Mr. Brent has made the same 

 cross several times in England, but the 

 young were very apt to die at about 

 ten days old ; one hybrid which he 

 reared (from C. cenas and a male Ant- 

 werp Carrier) paired with a Dragon, 

 but never laid eggs. Bechstein fur- 

 ther states (s. 26) that the domestic 

 pigeon will cross with C. palumbus, 

 Turtur risoria and T. vulgaris, but 

 nothing is said of the fertility of the 

 hybrids, and this would have been 

 mentioned had the fact been ascer- 

 tained. In the Zoological Gardens 



