Chap. I. DOMESTIC PIGEONS. 39 



this saino period the Dutch were as easier about pigeons as 

 were the old Romans. The paramount importance of these 

 considerations in explainini^ the immense amount of variation 

 Avhich pigeons have undcr2;one, will be obvious when Ave treat 

 of Selection. We shall then, also, see how it is 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 tlie probable origin of domestic pigeons 

 at some, yet quite insufiieient, length ; because when I first 

 kept pigeons and watched the several kinds, avcU knowing how 

 truly they breed, I felt fully as mucli dilliculty 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, v/ith 

 whom I have conversed, or Avhose treatises I have read, are 

 firmly convinced that the several breeds to Avhich each has 

 attended, are descended from so many aboriginally distinct 

 species. Ask, as I have asked, a celebrated raiser of Here- 

 ford cattle, whether his cattle might not have descended from 

 Long-horns, or both from a common parent-stock, and he Avill 

 laugh you to scorn, I have never met a pigeon, or })oultry, 

 or duck, or rabljit fancier, Avho 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 tlie 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 : from long- 

 continued study they are strongly impressed with the differ- 

 ences between the several races ; and though they well know 

 that each race varies slightly, for they win their prizes by 

 selecting such slight differences, yet they ignore all general 

 arguments, and refuse to sum u[) in their minds slight differ- 

 ences accumulated during many successive generations. May 

 not those naturalists who, knowing far less of the laws of 

 inheritance than does the breeder, and knowing no more than 

 be docs of the intermediate links in the long lines of descent, 



