Chap. VL DOMESTIC PIGEONS: THEIR PARENTAGE. 189 



CHAPTEE VL 



PIGEONS — continued. 



ON THE ABORIGINAL PARENT-STOCK OF THE SEVERAL DOMESTIC RACES- 

 HABITS OP LIFE — WILD RACES OF THE ROCK-PIGEON — DOVECOT-PIGEONS — 

 PROOFS OF THE DESCENT OF THE SEVERAL RACES FROM COLUMBA LIVIA 

 — FERTILITY OF THE RACES WHEN CROSSED — REVERSION TO THE PLUMAGE 

 OF THE WILD ROCK-PIGEON — CIRCUMSTANCES FAVOURABLE TO THE FOR- 

 MATION OP THE RACES — ANTIQUITY AND HISTORY OF THE PRINCIPAL 

 RACES — MANNER OP THEIR FORMATION — SELECTION — UNCONSCIOUS SE- 

 LECTION — CARE TAKEN BY FANCIERS IN SELECTING THEIR BIRDS- • 

 SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT STRAINS GRADUALLY CH.VNGE INTO WELL-MARKED 

 BREEDS — EXTINCTION OF INTERMEDIATE FORMS — CERTAIN BREEDS REMAIN 

 PERMANENT, WHILST OTHERS CHANGE — SUMMARY. 



The differences described in the last chapter between the 

 eleven chief domestic races and betv^^een individual birds of 

 the same race, would be of little significance, if they had not 

 all descended from a single wild stock. The question of their 

 origin is therefore of fundamental importance, and must be 

 discussed at considerable length. No one will think this 

 suj^erfluous who considers the great amount of difierence 

 between the races, who knows how ancient many of them 

 are, and how truly they breed at the present day. Fanciers 

 almost unanimously believe that the different races are 

 descended from several wild stocks, whereas most naturalists 

 believe that all are descended from the Columba livia or rock- 

 pigeon. 



Temminck^ has well observed, and Mr. Gould has made 

 the same remark to me, that the aboriginal parent must have 

 been a species which roosted and built its nest on rocks ; and 

 I may add that it must have been a social bird. For all the 

 domestic races are highly social, and none are known to build 

 or habitually to roost on trees. The awkward manner in 

 which some pigeons, kept by me in a summer-house near an 

 old walnut-tree, occasionally alighted on the barer branches, 



' Temminck, 'Hist. Nat. Gen, des Pigeons,' &c torn. i. p. 191. 



