170 DOMESTIC PIGEONS. C hap. v 



wing-feathers is not a character which is intentionally selected 

 by fanciers ; but fanciers have been trying for centuries, at least 

 since the year 1600, to increase the length of the reversed 

 feathers on the neck, so that the hood may more completely 

 enclose the head ; and it may be suspected that the increased 

 length of the wing and tail-feathers stands in correlation with 

 the increased length of the neck-feathers. Short-faced tumblers 

 have short wings in nearly due proportion with the reduced size 

 of their bodies ; but it is remarkable, seeing that the number of 

 the primary wing-feathers is a constant character in most birds 

 that these tumblers generally have only nine instead of ten 

 primaries. I have myself observed this in eight birds ; and the 

 Original Columbarian Society 37 reduced the standard for bald- 

 head tumblers from ten to nine white flight-feathers, thinking it 

 unfair that a bird which had only nine feathers should be dis- 

 qualified for a prize because it had not ten white flight-feathers. 

 On the other hand, in carriers and runts, which have large bodies 

 and long wings, eleven primary feathers have occasionally been 

 observed. 



Mr. Tegetmeier has informed me of a curious and inexplicable 

 case of correlation, namely, that young pigeons of all breeds 

 which when mature become white, yellow, silver (i. e. extremely 

 pale blue), or dun-coloured, are born almost naked; whereas 

 other coloured pigeons are born well clothed with down. Mr. 

 Esquilant, however, has observed that young dun carriers are 

 not so bare as young dun barbs and tumblers. Mr. Tegetmeier 

 has seen two young birds in the same nest, produced from dif- 

 ferently coloured parents, which differed greatly in the degree 

 to which they were at first clothed with down. 



I have observed another case of correlation which at first 

 sight appears quite inexplicable, but on which, as we shall 

 see in a future chapter, some light can be thrown by the law 

 of homologous parts varying in the same manner. The case 

 is, that, when the feet are much feathered, the roots of the 

 feathers are connected by a web of skin, and apparently in cor- 

 relation with this the two outer toes become connected lor a 

 considerable space by skin. I have observed this in very many 

 3 7 J. M. Eaton's Treatise, edit. 1858, p. 78. 



