82 DOMESTIC PIGEONS. [Chap. I. 



can reckon up their pedigree and race." Pigeons were 

 much valued by Akber Khan in India, about the year 

 1600; never less than 20,000 pigeons were taken with 

 the court. " The monarchs of Iran and Turan sent him 

 some very rare birds ; ' and, continues the courtly 

 historian, "His Majesty by crossing the breeds, which 

 method was never practised before, has improved them 

 astonishingly." About this same period the Dutch were 

 as eager about pigeons as were the old Eomans. The 

 paramount importance of these considerations in ex- 

 plaining the immense amount of variation which pigeons 

 have undergone, will likewise be obvious when we treat 

 of Selection. "We shall then, also, see how it is that the 

 several breeds so often have a somewhat monstrous 

 character. It is also a most favourable circumstance 

 for the production of distinct breeds, that male and 

 female pigeons can be easily mated for life ; and thus 

 different breeds can be kept together in the same 

 aviary. 



I have discussed the probable origin of domestic 

 pigeons at some, yet quite insutfjcient, length; because 

 when I first kept pigeons and watched the several 

 kinds, well knowing how truly they breed, I felt fully 

 as much difficulty in believing that since they had 

 been domesticated they had all proceeded from a 

 common parent, as any naturalist could in coming to 

 a similar conclusion in regard to the many species of 

 finches, or other groups of birds, in nature. One 

 circumstance has struck me much ; namely, that 

 nearly all the breeders of the various domestic 

 animals and the cultivators of plants, with whom I 

 have conversed, or whose treatises I have read, are 

 firnily convinced that the several breeds to which each 



