The Zoologist— October, 1867. .935 



of animals for domestication, which, however opposed to the patriotic 

 attempts of acclimatizing societies both at home and abroad, have the 

 insuperable recommendation of being strictly truthful. 



11 The rock dove is one of those animals that is capable of being 

 domesticated by man. The opinion that the majority of animals could 

 be domesticated is one that is very prevalent, but has no foundation 

 whatever in fact. For example, if a pair of eggs from the nest of a 

 wild blue rock are placed under a domestic pigeon that has been 

 sitting the same length of time as the birds from which the eggs were 

 taken, the latter will produce a pair of blue rocks, that will become 

 domesticated, being attached to their domus, or home. 



" On the other hand, if a pair of eggs from the stock dove {Columha 

 anas), or the ring dove [C.palumbus), be treated in a precisely similar 

 manner, the birds so produced will not become domesticated. There 

 is precisely the same difference between the fowl and the pheasant. 

 The former is so attached to its home that the return of the brood at 

 night has given rise to the proverb that ' Curses like chickens, always 

 come home to roost.' The pheasants, on the other hand, may have 

 been tame bred for twenty generations, and yet are no nearer true 

 domestication than their wild progenitors." — p. 25. 



The subject of variation is one on which Mr. Tegetmeier is par- 

 ticularly at home, and one he might have amplified with great 

 advantage to his readers. 



"It is well known that all animals, even those living in perfectly 

 natural conditions, are subject to certain variations, such as those of 

 colour, form, size, &c. Thus we have not unfrequent examples of 

 white moles, blackbirds, and other animals; and changes of form and 

 size are equally common. 



" In birds as extensively distributed as the rock dove (C. livia) slight 

 local or geographical variations constantly occur. Thus in India all 

 the wild blue rocks have ash- coloured feathers over the rump, whereas 

 the European birds have, as is well known, white rumps; and, as io 

 well known to most fanciers, this white rump is one of the most diffi- 

 cult points to 'breed out' in any of our blue varieties; whereas the 

 blue breeds derived from thejtadian birds have, as might be expected, 

 blue rumps." — p. 25. 



"Variations, however, of a much more striking character, not unfre- 

 quently occur in single cases of wild birds; but when they take place 



