292 COLUMBIA. 



on the Earer British Birds. The Stock Dove, on the con- 

 trary, roosts and lives almost exclusively in the woods, and 

 the other distinctions of voice and plumage have been 

 already pointed out. Our Dove house-pigeons possess 

 great power of vision, as well as speed and duration of 

 flight. Dr. Jenner says, " my ingenious -friend and neigh- 

 bour, the late Rev. Nathaniel Thornbury, who had occa- 

 sionally visited Holland, informed me that the Pigeons 

 about the Hague make daily marauding excursions, at 

 certain seasons, to the opposite shore of Norfolk, to feed on 

 vetches, a distance of forty leagues." Domestic Pigeons 

 have been known to live twenty years ; but ten or twelve 

 years are more common, and they are not usually very 

 prolific after five years. 



One of the first consequences of domestication, it is well 

 known, is the production of various colours, generally, how- 

 ever, retaining some indication of the original race, or re- 

 producing some of the original traits, if selection be not 

 attended to. The numerous and remarkable varieties 

 among what are called Fancy Pigeons, however first esta- 

 blished, are now maintained and perpetuated by selection 

 and restriction, and some of them are among the most 

 curious of zoological results. In some instances a remark- 

 able change has been effected in the character of the 

 feather ; thus in the Jacobins, more frequently for brevity's 

 sake called Jacks, there is a range of feathers inverted quite 

 over the hinder part of the head, and reaching down on 

 each side of the neck as low as the wings, forming a hood. 

 Another change, equally extraordinary, has been effected in 

 that variety called the Broad-tailed Shakers ; the tail- 

 feathers in these birds, all beautifully spread, amount to 

 thirty-six, though the. normal number of true tail-feathers 

 is but twelve. 



