PIGEONS FOR EXHIBITION PURPOSES 177 



woman, a blonde a brunette. A quick, irritable, impulsive person 

 generally feels more at home with a slower, even tempered 

 person, and if it were not for this condition the human race 

 would develop into extremes. Likes beget like, and if like 

 attracted like, in a short time one set of people would be ex- 

 tremely tall and another set extremely short — giants and 

 midgets. One class would be very dark, and another class very 

 light complexioned and so on. Now, what is true with people 

 is also true with animals of any kind, including pigeons; so in 

 the same breed of pigeons it would be possible to develop by 

 selection and elimination excessive large or extremely small 

 birds. Nature again has guarded against extremes by a safety 

 first idea. In pigeons I can't say that they mate off in opposites; 

 that is, that a small bird will naturally mate with a larger bird, 

 but I do know that if two extremely small l)irds mate or two 

 excessive large ones mate, their offspring will not be as plentiful 

 as will be the mating of average sized birds, and I do believe 

 that nature does by the rule of restriction in production main- 

 tain a uniformity. We can, however, assist nature, or gradually 

 drift it to a desired result, determining in advance what we 

 wish to accomplish along certain lines, and then accomplish 

 our purpose l)y mating and remating l)irds of different types 

 bv selection and elimination to produce the desired type. 



