162 



DOMESTIC PIGEONS. 



Chap. V 



Fantails, informs me that his cock birds often have a greater 

 number of tail-feathers than the hens. Mr. Eaton asserts 32 that 

 if a cock and hen Tumbler were of equal merit, the hen would 

 be worth double the money ; and as pigeons always pair, so that 

 an equal number of both sexes is necessary for reproduction, this 

 seems to show that high merit is rarer in the female than in the 

 male. In the development of the frill in Turbits, of the hood in 

 Jacobins, of the tuft in Trumpeters, of tumbling in Tumblers, there 

 is no difference between the males and females. I may here add 

 a rather different case, namely, the existence in France 33 of a 

 wine-coloured variety of the Pouter, in which the male is gene- 

 rally chequered with black, whilst the female is never so che- 

 quered. Dr. Chapuis also remarks 34 that in certain light-coloured 

 pigeons the males have their feathers striated with black, and 

 these striae increase in size at each moult, so that the male ulti- 

 mately becomes spotted with black. With Carriers, the wattle, 

 both on the beak and round the eyes, and with Barbs that round 

 the eyes, goes on increasing with age. This augmentation of 

 character with advancing age, and more especially the difference 

 between the males and females in the above-mentioned several 

 respects, are highly remarkable facts, for there is no sensible 

 difference at any age between the two sexes in the aboriginal 

 rock-pigeon ; and rarely any such difference throughout the 

 whole family of the Columbidae. 35 



Osteological Characters. 



In the skeletons of the various breeds there is much varia- 

 bility; and though certain differences occur frequently, and 

 others rarely, in certain breeds, yet none can be said to be abso- 

 lutely characteristic of any breed. Considering that strongly- 

 marked domestic races have been formed chiefly by man's power 



32 A Treatise, &c., p. 10. 



33 Boitard and Corbie, ' Les Pigeons,' 

 &c., 1824, p. 173. 



34 « Le Pigeon Voyageur Beige,' 1865, 

 p. 87. 



35 Prof. A. Newton ('Proc. Zoolog. 

 Soc.,' 1865, p. 716) remarks that he 

 knows no species which presents any 

 remarkable sexual distinction ; but it is 

 stated (' Naturalist's Library, Birds, vol. 



ix. p. 117) that the excrescence at the 

 base of the beak in the Carpophuga 

 oceanica is sexual : this, if correct, is an 

 interesting point of analogy with the 

 male Carrier, which has the wattle at 

 the base of its beak so much more de- 

 veloped than in the female. Mr. Wallace 

 informs me that in the sub-family of the 

 Treronidse the sexes often differ in 

 vividness of colour. 



