REASONS OP ILL SUCCESS. 49 



bird is purchased to cross with, it may introduce tendencies 

 towards features which are not wanted; and not only such as 

 itself possesses, but others which, not appearing in it, are not 

 known. If we consider, therefore, the average mode of pro- 

 ceeding of a young fancier, we shall be at no loss to account for 

 his ill success. As each fault becomes apparent to him, he is 

 apt to purchase a bird to correct it, as he thinks. Each time he 

 does this, some influence really is exerted upon the fault, and if 

 it were followed up, the ground might be secured ; but only 

 little is gained by each early step, and by going off after some 

 other point as soon as the first appears right, he drops the next 

 link in the succession, and nearly all is lost again. But now 

 let him consider this fact : that while there are many faults he 

 knows too well may appear in his pigeons at any time, there are 

 other points he never expects to find, and which, if he did find, 

 he would at once consider proof that he had been swindled into 

 purchasing absolutely impure blood. Suppose he breeds Barbs. 

 He knows too well that he may get at any time a narrow or 

 wedge-shaped skull, or a great deficiency in eye-wattle, or a 

 nearly straight face. But does he expect ever to see a frill on 

 the breast? No; though this point is found in many other 

 pigeons. Or a crest 1 No again ; though there is much reason 

 to believe that the Barb was actually bred at one time as a 

 crested bird. Whence the difference 1 



The answer is again obvious if we reflect. A clean breast 

 and a plain head have been regarded for generations as essential 

 features of a Barb, and birds which possessed frills and crests 

 have never been bred from. So far as regards these points, not 

 one single link in the chain of succession has been dropped, and 

 thus every generation has added to the stability of the breed. 

 The result is that those points are sure ; and we learn from it 

 that uncertainty is not a necessary thing as regards any point. 

 It can be overcome, and to overcome it is the work of every 

 fancier who founds a "strain," and whose birds acquire any 



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