Chap. V. PIGEONS : DESCRIPTION OF BREEDS. 131 



CHAPTEE V. 



DOMESTIC PIGEONS. 



ENUMERATION AND DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL BREEDS — INDIVIDUAL VARIABILITY 

 — VARIATIONS OF A REMARKABLE NATURE — OSTEOLOGICAL CHARACTERS : SKULL, 

 LOWER JAW, NUMBER OF VERTEBRAE — CORRELATION OF GROWTH : TONGUE WITH 

 BEAK ; EYELIDS AND NOSTRILS WITH WATTLED SKIN — NUMBER OF WING- FEATHERS, 

 AND LENGTH OF WING — COLOUR AND DOWN ■ — WEBBED AND FEATHERED FEET — 

 ON THE EFFECTS OF DISUSE — LENGTH OF FEET IN CORRELATION WITH LENGTH OF 

 BEAK — LENGTH OF STERNUM, SCAPULA, AND FURCULA — LENGTH OF WINGS — 

 SUMMARY ON THE POINTS OF DIFFERENCE IN THE SEVERAL BREEDS. 



I have been led to study domestic pigeons with particular 

 care, because the evidence that all the domestic races have 

 descended from one known source is far clearer than with any 

 other anciently domesticated animal. Secondly, because many 

 treatises in several languages, some of them old, have been 

 written on the pigeon, so that we are enabled to trace the 

 history of several breeds. And lastly, because, from causes 

 which we can partly understand, the amount of variation 

 has been extraordinarily great. The details will often be 

 tediously minute ; but no one who really wants to understand 

 the progress of change in domestic animals will regret this; and 

 no one who has kept pigeons and has marked the great difference 

 between the breeds and the trueness with which most of them 

 propagate their kind, will think this care superfluous. Not- 

 withstanding the clear evidence that all the breeds are the 

 descendants of a single species, I could not persuade myself 

 until some years had passed that the whole amount of difference 

 between them had arisen since man first domesticated the wild 

 rock-pigeon. 



I have kept alive all the most distinct breeds, which I could 

 procure in England or from the Continent; and have pre- 

 pared skeletons of all. I have received skins from Persia, 

 and a large number from India and other quarters of the 



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