412 



APPENDIX G 



evidence is clear that they are all descended 

 from the common wild duck and rabbit. 



The possibility of making distinct races by 

 crossing has been greatly exaggerated. Many 

 cases are on record, showing that a race may 

 be modified by occasional crosses, if aided by 

 the careful selection of the individuals which 

 present the desired character; but to obtain 

 a. race intermediate between two tjuite distinct 

 races would be very difficult. Sir J. Sebright 

 expressly experimented with this object, and 

 failed. The oflfspring from the first cross 

 between two pure breeds is tolerably and some- 

 times (as I have found with pigeons) quite 

 uniform in character, and everything seems 

 simple enough; but when these mongrels are 

 crossed one wiih another for several generations, 

 hardly two of them are alike, and then the difficulty 

 of the task becomes manifest. 



Believing that it is always best to study 

 some special group, I have, after deliberation, 

 taken up domestic pigeons. I have kept every 

 breed which I could purchase or obtain, and 

 have been most kindly favored with skins 

 from several quarters of the world, more 

 especially by the Hon. W. Elliot from India, 

 and by the Hon. C. Murray from Persia. 

 Many treatises in different languages have 

 been published on pigeons, and some of them 

 are very inmortant, as being of considerable 

 antiquity. I_ have associated with several 

 eminent fanciers, and have been permitted to 

 join two of the London pigeon clubs. The 

 diversity of the breeds is something astonishing. 

 Compare the English Carrier and the short- 

 faced Tumbler, and see the wonderful differ- 

 ence in their beaks, entailing corresponding 

 differences in their skulls. The Carrier, more 

 especially the male bird, is also remarkable 

 from the wonderful development of the carun- 

 culated sldn about the head; and this is ac- 

 companied by greatly elongated eyelids, very 

 large external orifices to the nostrils and a 

 wide gape of mouth. The short-faced Tumbler 

 has a beak in outline almost like that of a 

 finch; and the common Tumbler has the sin- 

 gular inherited habit of flying at a great height 

 in a compact flock and tumbling in the air 

 head over heels.- The Runt is a bird of g^reat 

 size, with long massive beak and large feet; 

 some of the sub-breeds of Runts have very 

 long necks, others very long wings and tails, 

 others singularly short tails. The Barb is 

 allied to the Carrier, but, instead of a long beak, 

 has a very short and broad one. The Pouter 

 has a much elongated body, wings and legs; 

 and its enormously developed crop, which it 

 f^Iorjesin inflating, may well excite astonishment 

 "^d even laughter. TheTurbithas a short and 

 ' 'nical beak, with a line of reversed feathers 

 iluwn the breast; and it has the habit of con- 

 Unually expanding, slightly, the upper part 

 of the oesophagus. The Jacobin has the 

 feathers so much reversed along the back of 

 the neck that they form a hood; and it has, 

 proportionally to its size, elongated wing and 

 tail feathers. The Trumpeter and Laugher, 

 as their names express, utter a very different 

 coo from the other breeds. The Fantail has 



thirty or even forty tail-feathers, instead of 

 twelve or fourteen — the normal number in 

 all the members of the great pigeon family. 

 These feathers are kept expanded and are 

 carried so erect that in good birds the head 

 and tail touch: the oil-^land is quite aborted. 

 Several other less distinct breeds might be 

 specified. 



In the skeletons of the several breeds, the 

 development of the bones of the face in length 

 and breadth and curvature differs enormously. 

 The shape, as well as the breadth and length 

 of the ramus of the lower jaw, varies in a 

 highly remarkable manner. The caudal and 

 sacral vertebrae vary in number; as does the 

 number of the ribs, together with their relative 

 breadth and the presence of processes. The 

 size and shape of the apertures in the sternum 

 are highly variable; so is the degree of diver- 

 gence and relative size of the two arms of the 

 furcula. The proportional width of the gape 

 of mouth, the proportional length of the eye- 

 lids, of the orifice of the nostrils, of the tongue 

 (not always in strict correlatiort with the lenoi'i 

 of beak), the size of the crop and the upper p < 

 of the cesophagus; the development ti.d 

 abortion of the oil-gland; the number of the 

 primary wing and caudal feathers; the relative 

 length of the wing and tail to each other and to 

 the body; the relative length of the leg and foot; 

 the number of scutellse on the toes, the develop- 

 ment of skin between the toes, are all points 

 of structure which are variable. The period 

 at which the perfect -olumage is acquired varies, 

 as does the state of the down with which the 

 nestling birds are clothed when hatched. The 

 shMB and size of the eggs vary. The manner 

 of flight, and in some breeds the voice and dis- 

 position, differ remarkably. Lastly, in certain 

 breeds, the males and females have come to differ 

 in a slight degree from each other. 



Altogether at least a score of pigeons might 

 be chosen, which, if shown to an ornithologist, 

 and he were told that they were wild birds, 

 wcnild certainly be ranked by him as well- 

 defined species. Moreover, I do not believe 

 that any ornithologist would in this case place 

 the English Carrier, the short-faced Tumbler, 

 the Runt, the Barb, Pouter and Fantail in 

 the same genus; more especially as in each rf 

 these breeds several truly-inherited sub-breeds, 

 or species, as he would call them, could be 

 shown him. 



Great as are the differences between the 

 breeds of the pigeon. I am fully convinced that 

 the common opinion of naturalists is correct, 

 namely, that all are descended from the rock- 

 ptqeon (columba livia), including under this 

 tCTm several geographical races or sub-species 

 wmch differ from each other in the most 

 tnfling respects. As several of the reasons 

 which have led me to this belief are in some 

 degree applicable in other cases, I will here 

 briefly pve them. If the several breeds are 

 not varieties, and have not proceeded from 

 the rock-pigeon, they must have descended 

 from at least seven or eight aboriginal stocks 

 for It IS impossible to make the present domestic 

 breeds by the crossing of any lesser number: 



