4 Fancy Pigeons. 



or other rewards, for the production of a now form of fancy pigeon other 

 than a mere feather -rariety, in the belief that such could not be produced. 

 But the life of a fancier, who may have kept pigeons for even sixty years, 

 is but a little while compared to the time they have been kept in the 

 world as domestic birds ; for we know they have been carefully bred 

 for nearly two thousand years. No other domestic animal I know of haa 

 branched out into such a variety of forms and colours, from which I 

 inter they have been long and extensively cherished by their admirers. 

 Every leading feature of the bird seems to have been already played 

 upon, so that one might almost he unable to suggest any other variation 

 than what already exists. And yet, even lately, a quite new variety of 

 pigeon appeared, as I shall afterwards show. 



I think the best argument in favour of some common ancestor for the 

 whole of our fancy pigeons is the fact that they all breed freely 

 together, and that they are only kept up to their best forms by the 

 guiding hands of experienced pigeon fanciers. They constantly throw 

 back, to some remote ancestor, stock that are unfit to go on with. The 

 worst of these, if bred together, while they will no doubt throw young 

 in some cases better than themselves, produce also others still further 

 removed from the desired type, and so the breed soon gets almost un- 

 recognisable. 



Supposing the more distinct varieties of pigeons to have been separate 

 creations, then they must certainly have been so distributed in the world 

 as not to come into contact with each other, or they would in a short 

 time have got intermingled. And, again, if not from a common stock, then 

 man must have, from time to time, captured the whole original stocks, 

 or they must have died out, for I have never yet heard of anything 

 approaching a fancy pigeon being found in a state of nature. In fact, 

 if able to exist in a state of nature and protect themselves from birds of 

 prey, fancy pigeons must have been so modified in their fancy points, 

 such as crops and fan shaped tails, as to be but little removed from 

 what we call common pigeons. 



Animals in domestication, and also in a wild state, are subject to 

 variations. In the latter state such variations are likely soon to 

 disappear, but in domestication the guiding hand of man fixes them on 

 account of their originality. By pairing any curious specimen of a breed 

 with one of the common type, the young may not prove uncommon ; 



