72 AMBIGUOUS NOMENCLATURE. [CHAP, ill- 



Dowby) of Teutonic derivation. That is all the dif- 

 ference we can discover between them. They are mostly 

 convertible terms, Dove being preferred to denote the 

 smaller species. If we followed the analogy of " beef," 

 " mutton," "veal," &c., in distinction to " ox," "sheep," 

 " calf," &c., Pigeon should be applied to the bird in its 

 dead, Dove in its living state. But such is not strictly, 

 though it is partially, the custom ; for Shakspeare speaks 

 of "a dish of Doves;" and we usually apply the first 

 term to the larger, and the latter to the smaller species 

 of the Columbine family. 



The arrangement now adopted will give an opportu- 

 nity for passing gradually from those Pigeons which are 

 completely domestic, to those that are utterly wild; 

 and then will arise the question, What is the origin of 

 the domestic races ? respecting which, we are anxious 

 to exhibit neither a timid silence nor a presumptuous 

 decision. There can be no harm in stating one's sin- 

 cere belief; and I must say that, having kept Pigeons, 

 though with intervals, from childhood, and having 

 thought much upon the subject, my code of natural his- 

 torical faith is this: that the domestic races of birds 

 and animals are not developments, but creations. I 



discovering that the Port Egmont Hens are Skua Gulls, and that 

 the flesh, though eatable in the form of a sea-pie by men who know 

 what it is to have a salt-water appetite, would scarcely do to set 

 before dainty epicures to represent boiled chicken with white sauce. 

 Again, Pintado, i. e., painted, a term by which the Guinea-fowl is 

 sometimes known, is also still applied by sailors in the South 

 Atlantic to a bird whose habits are entirely marine ; but in this 

 case it would appear that the traverser of the ocean has the first 

 claim to the title, which was subsequently, or at least not earlier, 

 bestowed upon the only addition to our poultry stock which Africa 

 has furnished, on which account we have scrupulously abstained from 

 thus using the word in our former volume, considering that the 

 designation ought to be yielded in courtesy to the favourite bird of 

 the old Portuguese discoverers. 



