9 ORIGIN. 



I think the best argument in favour of some common 

 ancestor for the whole of our fancy pigeons is the fact that 

 they all breed freely together, and that they are only kept 

 up to their best forms by the guiding hands of experienced 

 pigeon fanciers. They constantly throw back, to some remote 

 ancestor, stock that are unfit to go on with. The worst of 

 these, if bred together, would no doubt breed young in some 

 cases better than themselves, but also others still further 

 removed from the desired type, and so the breed would soon 

 become almost unrecognisable. 



Supposing the more distinct varieties of pigeons to have 

 been separate creations, then they must certainly have been 

 so distributed in the world as not to come into contact with 

 each other, or they would in a short time have got inter- 

 mingled. And, again, if not from a common stock, then man 

 must have, from time to time, captured the whole original 

 stocks, or they must have died out, for I have never yet heard 

 of anything like a fancy pigeon being found in a state of 

 nature. In fact, if able to exist in a state of nature, and 

 protect themselves from birds of prey, fancy pigeons must 

 have been so modified in their fancy points, such as crops 

 and fan-shaped tails, as to be but little removed from what 

 we call common pigeons. 



Variations in Form, &c. 



Some fanciers, who never in the course of their lives 

 observed the least variation in the forms of their fancy pigeons, 

 are of opinion that the more distinct kinds, such as pouters, 

 carriers, jacobins, and fantails, were separate creations, and 

 owe their origin to birds having, probably in a modified form, 

 the peculiarities of these breeds. They have even offered 

 silver cups or other rewards for the production of a new form 

 of fancy pigeon other than a mere feather variety, in the 

 belief that such could not be produced; but the life of a fancier 

 who may have kept pigeons for even half a century, is but a 



