160 DOMESTIC PIGEONS. yuA|l y 



same breed, as in carefully bred Jacobins and Trumpeters. In Carriers there 

 is often a conspicuous difference in the degree of attenuation and curva- 

 ture of the beak. So it is indeed in many breeds : thus I had two strains of 

 black Barbs, which evidently differed in the curvature of the upper 

 mandible. In width of mouth I have found a great difference in two 

 Swallows. In Fantails of first-rate merit I have seen some birds with 

 much longer and thinner necks than in others. Other analogous facts could 

 be given. We have seen that the oil-gland is aborted in all Fantails (with 

 the exception of the sub-race from Java), and, I may add, so hereditary is 

 this tendency to abortion, that some, although not all, of the mongrels 

 from the Fantail and Pouter had no oil-gland ; in one Swallow out of many 

 which I have examined, and in two Nuns, there was no oil-gland. 



The number of the scutellse on the toes often varies in the same breed 

 and sometimes even differs on the two feet of the same individual • the 

 Shetland rock-pigeon has fifteen on the middle, and six on the hinder toe • 

 whereas I have seen a Eunt with sixteen on the middle and eight on the 

 hind toe ; and a short-faced Tumbler with only twelve and five on these 

 same toes. The rock-pigeon has no sensible amount of skin between its toes • 

 but I possessed a Spot and a Nun with the skin extending for a space of a 

 quarter of an inch from the fork, between the two inner toes. On the 

 other hand, as will hereafter be more fully shown, pigeons with feathered 

 feet very generally have the bases of their outer toes connected by skin. I 

 had a red Tumbler, which had a coo unlike that of its fellows, approaching 

 in tone to that of the Laugher : this bird had the habit, to a degree which 

 I never saw equalled in any other pigeon, of often walking with its wings 

 raised and arched in an elegant manner. I need say nothing on the great 

 variability, in almost every breed, in size of body, in colour, in the feathering 

 of the feet, and in the feathers on the back of the head being reversed. But 

 I may mention a remarkable Tumbler 28 exhibited at the Crystal Palace, 

 which had an irregular crest of feathers on its head, somewhat like the tuft 

 on the head of the Polish fowl. Mr. Bult reared by accident a hen Jacobin 

 with the feathers on the thigh so long as to reach the ground, and a cock 

 having, but in a lesser degree, the same peculiarity : from these two birds 

 he bred others similarly characterised, which were exhibited at the Philo- 

 peristeron Club. I bred a mongrel pigeon which had fibrous feathers, and 

 the wing and tail-feathers so short and imperfect that the bird could not 

 fly even a foot in height. 



There are many singular and inherited peculiarities in the 

 plumage of pigeons : thus Almond-Tumblers do not acquire their 

 perfect mottled feathers until they have moulted three or four 

 times : the Kite Tumbler is at first brindled black and red with 

 a barred appearance, but when " it throws its nest feathers it 

 becomes almost black, generally with a bluish tail, and a reddish 

 colour on the inner webs of the primary wing feathers." 29 Neu- 



28 Described and figured in the 29 ' The Pigeon Book,' by Mr. B. P. 



' Poultry Chronicle,' vol. iii., 1855, p. 82. Brent, 1859, p. 41. 



