56 THE OlilOlN OF SPECIES 



shal. then, also, see how it 's that the several breeds 

 so often have a somewhat monstrous character. It is/ 

 also a most favorable 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 domestio 

 pigeons at some, yet quite insufficient, length; be- 

 cause when I first kept pigeons and watched the sev- 

 eral 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 Hereford cattle, whether his cattle 

 might not have descended from Long-horns, 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 rab- 

 bit fancier ywho 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: 



V 



