CHAP. XV.] FARMING FOR LADIES. 295 



! essentially in some of their habits. This may, 

 ! however, in some cases, be attributed to 

 the regions of which they are indigenous, or 

 generated by crosses with some foreign race, 

 which, among all animals, we constantly see 

 created with such strange deviation from rule, 

 as to seem a new kind of being : the tumbler, 

 for instance, exercising itself continually while 

 in the air, by rolling over and over without in- 

 termission ; while the powter, on the contrary, 

 remains stationary, contenting itself with puff- 

 ing out its crop to a ridiculous extent; and 

 the runt has the advantage of a larger size ; 

 but, although all this may have been occa- 

 sioned by accidental causes, or by the efforts 

 of breeders to improve their stock, the extra- 

 ordinary instinct of the carrier-pigeon can 

 only be ascribed to nature. 



Buffon views the whole of our domestic 

 race as arising from the common origin of the 

 stock-dove ; but this is disputed by many, 

 who rather suppose it to have originated from 

 the blue rock-pigeon, or " rockier," which is 

 a native inhabitant of this country. The 

 stock-dove is of a deep bluish ash-colour; 

 the breast dashed with a fine changeable 



