44 ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



plaining the immense amount of variation which pigeons have 

 undergone, will likewise be obvious when we treat of Selec- 

 tion. We shall then, also, see how it is that the several 

 breeds so often have a somewhat monstrous character. It is 

 also a most favourable circumstance for the production of 

 distinct breeds, that male and female pigeons can be easily 

 mated for life ; and thus different breeds can be kept together 

 in the same aviary. 



I have discussed the probable origin of domestic pigeons at 

 some, yet quite insufficient, length ; because when I first kept 

 pigeons and watched the several kinds, well knowing how 

 truly they breed, I felt fully as much difficulty in believing 

 that since they had been domesticated they had all proceeded 

 from a common parent, as any naturalist could in coming to 

 a similar conclusion in regard to the many species of finches, 

 or other groups of birds, in nature. One circumstance has 

 struck me much ; namely, that nearly all the breeders of the 

 various domestic animals and the cultivators of plants, with 

 whom I have conversed, or whose treatises I have read, are 

 firmly convinced that the several breeds to which each has 

 attended, are descended from so many aboriginally distinct 

 species. Ask, as I have asked, a celebrated raiser of Here- 

 ford cattle, whether his cattle might not have descended from 

 Longhorns, or both from a common parent-stock, and he will 

 laugh you to scorn. I have never met a pigeon, or poultry, 

 or duck, or rabbit fancier, who was not fully convinced that 

 each main breed was descended from a distinct species. Van 

 Mons, in his treatise on pears and apples, shows how utterly 

 he disbelieves that the several sorts, for instance a Ribston- 

 pippin or Codlin-apple, could ever have proceeded from the 

 seeds of the same tree. Innumerable other examples could 

 be given. The explanation, I think, is simple : from long- 

 continued study they are strongly impressed with the differ- 

 ences between the several races ; and though they well know 

 that each race varies slightly, for they win their prizes by 

 selecting such slight differences, yet they ignore all general 

 arguments, and refuse to sum up in their minds slight differ- 

 ences accumulated during many successive generations. May 

 not those naturalists who, knowing far less of the laws of 

 inheritance than does the breeder, and knowing no more than 



