VARIATION UNDER DOMESTICATION 25 



aboriginally as distinct as carriers, tumblers, pouters, 

 and fantails now are, should yield offspring perfectly 

 fertile, inter $e, seems to me rash in the extreme. 



From these several reasons, namely, the improbability 

 of man having formerly got seven or eight supposed 

 species of pigeons to breed freely under domestica- 

 tion ; these supposed species being quite unknown in 

 a wild state, and their becoming nowhere feral ; these 

 species having very abnormal characters in certain re- 

 spects, as compared with all other Columbidse, though so 

 like in most other respects to the rock-pigeon ; the blue 

 colour and various marks occasionally appearing in all 

 the breeds, both when kept pure and when crossed ; 

 the mongrel offspring being perfectly fertile ; — from 

 these several reasons, taken together, I can feel no 

 doubt that all our domestic breeds have descended from 

 the Columba livia with its geographical sub-species. 



In favour of this view, I may add, firstly, that C. 

 livia, or the rock-pigeon, has been found capable of 

 domestication in Europe and in India ; and that it 

 agrees in habits and in a great number of points of 

 structure with all the domestic breeds. Secondly, 

 although an English carrier or short-faced tumbler 

 differs immensely in certain characters from the rock- 

 pigeon, yet by comparing the several sub -breeds of 

 these varieties, more especially those brought from 

 distant countries, we can make an almost perfect series 

 between the extremes of structure. Thirdly, those 

 characters which are mainly distinctive of each breed, 

 for instance the wattle and length of beak of the 

 carrier, the shortness of that of the tumbler, and the 

 number of tail-feathers in the fantail, are in each breed 

 eminently variable ; and the explanation of this fact 

 will be obvious when we come to treat of selection. 

 Fourthly, pigeons have been watched, and tended with 

 the utmost care, and loved by many people. They 

 have been domesticated for thousands of years in 

 several quarters of the world ; the earliest known 

 record of pigeons is in the fifth Egyptian dynasty, about 

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



