CHAPTER I. 



THE ORIGIN OF FANCY PIGEONS. 



Although, probably, of not much account to many who delight in 

 keeping them, the question of how the many varieties of domestic 

 pigeons now existing in the world originated, is deserving of some 

 attention on my part, before commencing a detailed descrix^tion of the 

 various kinds. 



Naturalists look for the original stock of all tame pigeons in some wild 

 pigeon, and for a long time the stock dove was regarded as this original. 

 This idea is now exploded, as the stock dove is not a bird capable of 

 domestication. The only wild pigeon now believed capable of being the 

 originator of our domestic pigeons is the blue rock pigeon, sub-varieties of 

 which are found in Europe, Asia, and Africa. The British blue rock in- 

 habits the rocks and caves on our sea coasts, and certainly the difference 

 between this bird and a common blue flying tumbler is very little. Their 

 colour is identical, their size almost so. The head and beak of the tumbler 

 are somewhat different from those of the rock pigeon, and the pinions of 

 the latter are longer and stronger, as must necessarily be the case from 

 its mode of life. In the West of Scotland, where they keep and show 

 common pigeons, the wild blue rock domesticated is the bird so called. 

 At the Kilmarnock show a dozen pens of these are generally to be seen, 

 in blues, blue chequers, and sometimes white or Albino specimens. 



Some fanciers, who never in the course of their lives observed the least 

 variation in the f-.-rms of their fancy pigeons, are of opinion that the more 

 distinct kinds, such as pouters, carriers, jacobins, and fantails, were sepa- 

 rate creationSj and owe their origin to birds having, probably in a modified 

 form, the peculiarities of these breeds. They have even offered silver cups, 



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