12 FANCY PIGEONS. 



the Belgian or Lancashire coppy in form, and the lizard or 

 cinnamon in feather, and the wild canary, as still yearly im- 

 ported into this country, is as great as the difference between 

 the pouter in form and colour and the blue rock pigeon. 



Such results, in a comparatively short time, from canary 

 breeding, have led me to suppose that, were bird fanciers to 

 persevere with goldfinches, linnets, and siskins, all of which 

 have been bred in confinement, we should ultimately see 

 similar variations in them. Variety of colour constantly 

 occurs among them in a wild state, and such has been noticed 

 by naturalists for 200 years. 



Foreign Varieties. 



Besides the blue rock pigeon inhabiting our coasts, others 

 differing from it slightly are known to exist in Asia and 

 Africa. Any of these that may have been domesticated may 

 have been progenitors of fancy pigeons. One of them, the 

 Columba Leuconota, inhabiting the Himalayas, is marked on 

 the head and tail like a nun, and, in addition, the wings are 

 marked something like those of a swallow pigeon. But 

 whether or not it is a true rock pigeon, capable of domestica- 

 tion, and able to produce young with a common blue rock 

 or tame pigeon, themselves in turn fertile, is what I cannot 

 say. This subject, however, is one more for naturalists than 

 pigeon fanciers, who have generally their hands full with the 

 work of keeping up, and possibly improving, the interesting 

 forms of pigeon life handed down to them from of old. 



Of late years we have received from abroad many kinds 

 of pigeons of the highest excellence, showing such breeding 

 that what we had before of the same types seemed but 

 half-bred beside them. Still, no quite new or distinct forms 

 have reached us, entirely different from what we knew of, 

 though many distinct varieties of colour have appeared, as 

 in the short-faced frilled varieties from Asia Minor. Since 

 the first edition of this book was published, in 1881, a variety 



