BLYTH KEMAKKS ON PIGEONS, ETC. 89 



(so called) in Italy, and a C. intermedia in India and the Indo-Chinese 

 countries, the common hlue pigeon of that region, which barely differs 

 from the European C. livia, except in constantly wanting the white 

 above the tail. He had watched great flocks of these birds, as especially 

 those crowding about the many suitable nooks of the great mosque of 

 Aurungzebe, at Benares, looking down upon them from the top of one 

 of the two famous lofty minarets of that edifice, and had observed in 

 them no variation of colour ; but this race particularly frequents large 

 buildings, equally with rocky precipices, whether inland or by the sea- 

 side, as also old ruinous walls ; and in parts of the country where such 

 do not occur, it breeds abundantly far down the shafts of deep wells ; 

 and in towns and villages it merges insensibly into domesticity, and 

 among the more or less domesticated individuals are very many that 

 exhibit the spotted wing of (so-called) C. affinis. He would, moreover, 

 remark that among the domestic pigeons of India it is as rare to see the 

 white rump as is the reverse in Europe. In Middle Asia another cog- 

 nate race exists in the C. rupestris of Pallas, which occurs in Thibet, 

 and in the British province of Kemaon. High upon the Himalaya there 

 is the C. leuconota, which is another true rock-pigeon, though differing 

 more from the rest in plumage ; and in Abyssinia, again, there is a pe- 

 culiar corresponding race of blue pigeon, which is denominated C. Schim- 

 peri ; as in Senegal there is even another, denominated C. gymnocyclos, 

 by Mr. G. B. Gray. The decided use of applying names to such dis- 

 tinguishable geographical races was, that each of them could thus be 

 severally and definitively referred to by its special designation. This 

 was a practical advantage, wholly irrespective of the zoological or bota- 

 nical value to be attached to such appellation, about which there would, 

 of course, be difference of opinion. 



He (Mr. Blyth) then discussed the subject of hybridity, with particular 

 reference to instances which he cited of the existence of prolific hybrids 

 in various classes, both animal and vegetable. The whole of the races 

 of pigeons above mentioned, Mr. Blyth fully believed, would intermingle 

 in domesticity, and produce completely fertile hybrids, or, should he not 

 rather call them sub-hybrids ? and such races had also been designated 

 con-species. It was so in other classes, whether of plants or animals, 

 of which the speaker cited a variety of instances ; and he descanted upon 

 the impossibility of rigorously defining species in a multitude of familiar 

 cases. But it was needless for him to expound in detail the views held 

 on this subject by his friend Mr. Charles Darwin, and the large and in- 

 creasing body of naturalists of superior qualifications who participate in 

 his opinions. 



Dr. E. H. Bennett exhibited a head of the common Eat, remarkable 

 not only for an abnormal excessive elongation of the upper and under 

 incisor teeth, at opposite sides, due to want of antagonism, and therefore 

 to want of use ; but also curious from a peculiar fringe of warty excres- 

 cences upon the edges of the ears, as it were, due to a chronic form of 

 ulceration. 



