VARIATION UNDER DOMESTICATION 47 



be modified by occasional crosses, if aided by the careful 

 selection of the individuals which present the desired 

 character; but to obtain a race intermediate between 

 two quite distinct races would be very difficult. Sir J. 

 Sebright expressly experimented with this object and 

 failed. The offspring from the first cross between two 

 pure breeds is tolerably and sometimes (as I have found 

 with pigeons) quite uniform in character, and everything 

 seems simple enough; but when these mongrels are crossed 

 one with another for several generations, hardly two of 

 them are alike, and then the difficulty of the task be- 

 comes manifest. 



Breeds of the Domestic Pigeon, their Differences and Origin 



Believing that it is always best to study some special 

 group, I have, after deliberation, taken up domestic 

 pigeons. I have kept every breed which I could pur- 

 chase or obtain, and have been most kindly favored with 

 skins from several quarters of the world, more especially 

 by the Hon. W. Elliot from India, and by the Hon. C. 

 Murray from Persia. Many treatises in different lan- 

 guages have been published on pigeons, and some of 

 them are very important, as being of considerable antiq- 

 uity. I have associated with several eminent fanciers, 

 and have been permitted to join two of the London/^ "s^ 

 Pigeon Clubs. The diversity of the breeds is something 

 astonishing. Compare the English carrier and the short- 

 faced tumbler, and see the wonderful difference in their 

 beaks, entailing corresponding differences in their skulls. 

 The carrier, more especially the male bird, is also remark- 

 able from the wonderful development of the carunculated 

 skin about the head; and this is accompanied by greatly 



