182 SELECTION. Chap. XX. 



told me that he always deliberated for several days before he 

 matched each pair. Hence we can understand the advice of 

 an eminent fancier, who writes, 18 " I would here particularly 

 " guard you against having too great a variety of pigeons, 

 " otherwise you will know a little of all, but nothing about 

 " one as it ought to be known." Apparently it transcends 

 the power of the human intellect to breed all kinds : " it 

 " is possible that there may be a few fanciers that have a 

 " good general knowledge of fancy pigeons ; but there are 

 " many more who labour under the delusion of supposing 

 " they know what they do not." The excellence of one sub- 

 variety, the Almond Tumbler, lies in the plumage, carriage, 

 head, beak, and eye; but it is too presumptuous in the 

 beginner to try for all these points. The great judge above 

 quoted says, " There are some young fanciers who are over- 

 ' k covetous, who go for all the above five properties at once ; 

 they have their reward by getting nothing." We thus see 

 that breeding even fancy pigeons is no simple art : we may 

 smile at the solemnity of these precepts, but he who laughs 

 will win no prizes. 



What methodical selection has effected for our animals is 

 sufficiently proved, as already remarked, by our Exhibitions. 

 So greatly were the sheep belonging to some of the earlier 

 breeders, such as Bakewell and Lord Western, changed, that 

 many persons could not be persuaded that they had not been 

 crossed. Our pigs, as Mr. Corringham remarks, 19 during the 

 last twenty years have undergone, through rigorous selection 

 together with crossing, a complete metamorphosis. The first 

 exhibition for poultry was held in the Zoological Gardens in 

 1845 ; and the improvement effected since that time has been 

 great. As Mr. Bailey, the great judge, remarked to me, it 

 was formerly ordered that the comb of the Spanish cock 

 should be upright, and in four or five years all good birds 

 had upright combs; it was ordered that the Polish cock 

 should have no comb or wattles, and now a bird thus fur- 

 nished would be at once disqualified ; beards were ordered, 



18 J. M. Eaton, 'A Treatise on 1851, p. 11. 

 Fancy Pigeons,' 1852, p. xiv., and 19 'Journal Royal Agricultural 



'A Treatise on the Almond Tumbler,' Soc.,' vol. vi. p. 22. 



