26 DOMESTIC PIGEONS. [Chap. I. 



some breeds the voice and disposition, 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, would 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 of 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-pigeon (Columba livia), in- 

 cluding under this term several geographical races or 

 sub-species, which differ from each other in the most 

 trifling 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 give 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 : how, for instance, could 

 a pouter be produced by crossing two breeds unless 

 one of the parent-stocks possessed the characteristic 

 enormous crop ? The supposed aboriginal stocks must 

 all have been rock-pigeons, that is, they did not breed 

 or willingly perch on trees. But besides C. livia, with 

 its geographical sub-species, only two or three other 



