PIGEONS' WINGS. 63 



first appears a wholly different and unexpected 

 result." l This unexpected increase in the spread of 

 the wings from tip to tip is due to the feathers, 

 which have lengthened in spite of disuse. Excluding 

 the feathers, the wings were shorter in seventeen 

 instances, and longer in eight. But as artificial 

 selection has lengthened the wings in some 

 instances, why may it not have shortened 

 them in others ? Wings with shortened bones 

 would fold up more neatly than the long wings 

 of the Carrier pigeon for instance, and so might 

 unconsciously be favoured by fanciers. The 

 selection of elegant birds with longer necks or 

 bodies would cause a relative reduction in the 

 wings as with the Pouter, where the wings 

 have been greatly lengthened but not so 

 much as the body. 2 Slender bodies, too, and the 

 lessened divergence of the furculum, 3 would 



1 Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, i. 

 184, 185. 2 Ibid. i. 144, 145. 3 Ibid. i. 185. 



