412 THE CAUSES OF THE 



XI 



who may be pigeon fanciers, and I wish you to 

 understand that in approaching the subject, I would 

 speak with all humility and hesitation, as I regret 

 to say that I am not a pigeon fancier. I know it 

 is a great art and mystery, and a thing upon which 

 a man must not speak lightly ; but I shall en- 

 deavour, as far as my understanding goes, to give 

 you a summary of the published and unpublished 

 information which I have gained from Mr. Darwin. 

 Among the enormous variety, I believe there 

 are somewhere about a hundred and fifty kinds of 

 pigeons, there are four kinds which may be se- 

 lected as representing the extremest divergences 

 of one kind from another. Their names are the 

 Carrier, the Pouter, the Fantail, and the Tumbler. 

 In these large diagrams that I have here they are 

 each represented in their relative sizes to each 

 other. This first one is the Carrier; you will 

 notice this large excrescence on its beak ; it has a 

 comparatively small head ; there is a bare space 

 round the eyes ; it has a long neck, a very long 

 beak, very strong legs, large feet, long wings, and 

 so on. The second one is the Pouter, a very large 

 bird, with very long legs and beak. It is called 

 the Pouter because it is in the habit of causing its 

 gullet to swell up by inflating it with air. I should 

 tell you that all pigeons have a tendency to do this 

 at times, but in the Pouter it is carried to an 

 enormous extent. The birds appear to be quite 

 proud of their power of swelling and puffing them- 



