178 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



The breeders of pigeons from remote antiquity to the present 

 day appear to have had no definite purpose in all their pains. 

 They have taken the chance variations in form and habit and 

 endeavored to extend these sports of nature by a careful sys- 

 tem of matinof those in which the sinofular features were most 

 evident. Thus the fan-tail breed has been developed until 



the creatures dis- 

 play their unor- 

 na mental tail 

 feathers with all 



^^fe. 



the dignity with 

 which a peacock 

 shows his marvel- 

 lous decorations. 

 The pouters have 

 in some unac- 

 countable way 

 learned to take 

 air into their 

 crop ; and the 

 habit has been 

 developed by se- 

 lection until the 

 bird destroys all 

 trace of his original shapeliness, though he seems to take 

 pride in his diseased appearance. The tumbler, probably 

 derived from some ancestor afiflicted with a disease of an 

 epileptic character, manages to go through his convulsions 

 in the air without serious consequences and apparently with 

 some pleasure to himself. There are over one hundred less 

 conspicuous varieties, of which only one deserves notice, and 



The Giant Crowned Pigeon of India 



