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CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN 



November-Deeemher, 1H5 



CROWNED PIGEON 



Included in the panel of wild pigeons, this is the largest 

 living member of the order, growing to the size of a large 

 domestic fowl. It i& found only in the New Guinea area 

 where the Museum specimen was collected in 1928 by the 

 Comeltus Crane Paci6c Expedition. 



man has produced this remarkable variety 

 of form and coloration, is the natural 

 counterpart of the profoundly important 

 principle or natural selection. This was 

 proposed by Darwin in the epoch-making 

 Origin of Species. The publication of this 

 work in 1859 was a turning point in the 

 history of biology, and indeed, in human 

 thought. It is no exaggeration to state 

 that this was the most important historic 

 event in the 19th century. 



It is simple and romantic to find the 

 beginnings of the idea of evolution in the 

 mind of Charles Darwin in his first glimpse 

 of the fossils of gigantic extinct creatures 

 in the cliffs of Patagonia or in his contact 

 with the animal life of the "Lost World" of 

 the Galapagos. Actually, the thinking 



that resulted in the Origin of Species in 1859 

 had a multitude of roots, and not the least 

 interesting found natural soil in the life of a 

 country gentleman, with its intimate con- 

 tact with domestic animals. Animals under 

 domestication, removed from the pressures 

 of the "struggle for existence" (it is difficult 

 to think of such matters in pre-Darwinian 

 terms), exhibit an extraordinary variability. 

 By both conscious and unconscious selec- 

 tion, man has seized upon this variability to 

 produce useful breeds or to increase the 

 usefulness to himself of existing ones. 



After his return from the voyage of the 

 Beagle, Darwin settled at Down and 

 addressed himself to the methodical testing 

 of the evidences for evolution. As a 

 naturalist, he was more interested in the 

 diversification of plant and animal life into 

 the multitude of existing types, i.e.. In the 

 origin of species, than in any hypothetical 

 progression from simple to complex or from 

 amoeba to man. The multitude of English 

 breeds of domestic animals was of course 

 familiar to him, and much of their origin 

 was common knowledge to every intelli- 

 gent farmer. 



A report on the phenomena of domesti- 

 cation took shape for his growing book, and 

 in order to speak with authority, he under- 

 took extensive breeding of pigeons in his 

 own lofts, joining the London clubs of pigeon 

 breeders and fanciers, and corresponding 

 extensively with other breeders. 



Darwin's studies did not disclose the 

 secrets of heredity discovered by his con- 

 temporary, Gregor Mendel; but his knowl- 

 edge of the variability of his pigeons and of 

 the impact on that variability of selection 

 by man made his account of animals and 

 plants under domestication, the first chapter 

 in the Origin of Species, an admirable and 

 logical introduction to the whole topic of 



ARTIFICIAL SELECTION SECTION OF THE NEW PIGEON EXHIBIT 

 The breeds and varieties of the domestic pigeon exhibit the effects of artificial selection on a single species. The ancestral 



rock pigeon is shown at the top of the screen. 



evolution. Darwin's first expansion of the 

 materia] in the Origin resulted in his 

 Animals and Plants under Domestication. 



NATURAL SELECTION 



As a counterpart for the illustration of 

 artificial selection by domestic pigeons, the 

 principal types of wild pigeons have been 

 assembled in a special case labeled "Results 

 of Natural Selection in Wild Rgeons." Such 

 results are, of course, represented by the 

 whole of the animal and plant kingdoms. 

 The wild pigeons include extremes in size, 

 from the New Guinea crowned pigeon, as 

 large as an Orpington chicken, to the 

 tiny ground doves, no more than six inches 

 long; and extremes of coloration, from the 

 dull-colored desert types to the brilliantly 

 colored fruit pigeons of the tropics. 



In all their diversity, wild pigeons 

 ordinarily do not exhibit the bizarre 

 extremes of the domestic races. Natural 

 selection eliminates such extremes. The 

 case of the dodo, which evolved into a 

 gigantic, flightless, and helpless creature in 

 the safety of a remote island, affords an 

 example of evolution under release from the 

 principal forces of natural selection. 



The diversity of type in the pigeon tribe 

 in general represents a capitalization upon a 

 striking adaptation, the production of a 

 special food for the young, the so-called 

 "pigeon milk." It is this advantage that has 

 enabled the pigeons (in this case the Order 

 Columbiformes) to range over most of the 

 world and into every kind of environment, 

 with the accompanying evolution of some 

 sixty genera, including the distinct suborder 

 for the "sand grouse," the family Raphidae 

 for the dodo, and four subfamilies of the true 

 pigeons (the family Columbidae). 



The preparation of the two pigeon screens 

 has been accomplished by gratifying co-op- 

 eration. The mounting of the birds is by 

 Staff Taxidermists Wilmer E. Eigsti, Frank 

 C. Wonder, and John W. Moyer, while bills 

 and feet in celluloid were produced by 

 Leon L. Walters. The assemblage of the 

 specimens of domestic pigeons was under- 

 taken by Mr. Joseph N. Koehler, with the 

 aid of Mr. Walter Krawiec, and all came to 

 the Museum without cost. Valued advice 

 was also received from Messrs. Frank Mack 

 and Karl Plath. 



The breeders and donors of pigeons are: 



Lewis W. Bell, Oak Park — black nun; 

 Robert R. Boehland, Rockford — red jaco- 

 bin and kite saddle fantail; H. Eric Buri, 

 Birmingham, New Jersey — white giant 

 runt; Sid Buzennius, Berwyn — blue laced 

 satinette; Walter O. Grant, Chicago — blue 

 barred spot swallow; Groh Brothers, Chi- 

 cago — yellow African owl; A. Kapturski, 

 Chicago — red English pouter; Joseph N. 

 Koehler, Chicago — black baldhead; Charles 

 Strebling, Lyons, Illinois — black English 

 carrier, and Shemroske Brothers, Chicago —  

 flying homer. 



