180 DOMESTIC PIGEONS. Chap. VI 



CHAPTER VI. 



PIGEONS — continued. 



ON THE ABORIGINAL PARENT-STOCK OF THE SEVERAL DOMESTIC RACES — HABITS OF 

 LIFE — WILD RACES OF THE ROCK-PIGEON — DOVECOT-PIGEONS — PROOFS OF THE 

 DESCENT OF THE SEVERAL RACES FROM COLUMBA LIVIA — FERTILITY OF THE RACES 



WHEN CROSSED — REVERSION TO THE PLUMAGE OF THE WILD ROCK-PIGEON 



CIRCUMSTANCES FAVOURABLE TO THE FORMATION OF THE RACES — ANTIQUITY AND 

 HISTORY OF THE PRINCIPAL RACES — MANNER OF THEIR FORMATION — SELECTION 

 — UNCONSCIOUS SELECTION — CARE TAKEN BY FANCIERS IN SELECTING THEIR 

 BIRDS — SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT STRAINS GRADUALLY CHANGE INTO WELL-MARKED 



BREEDS EXTINCTION OF INTERMEDIATE FORMS — CERTAIN BREEDS REMAIN 



PERMANENT, WHILST OTHERS CHANGE — SUMMARY. 



The differences described in the last chapter between the 

 eleven chief domestic races and between individual birds of 

 the same race, would be of little significance, if they had not 

 all descended from a single wild stock. The question of their 

 origin is therefore of fundamental importance, and must be dis- 

 cussed at considerable length. No one will think this super- 

 fluous who considers the great amount of difference between 

 the races, who knows how ancient many of them are, and 

 how truly they breed at the present day. Fanciers almost 

 unanimously believe that the different races are descended from 

 several wild stocks, whereas most naturalists believe that all are 

 descended from the Columba livia or rock-pigeon. 



Temminck 1 has well observed, and Mr. Gould has made the 

 same remark to me, that the aboriginal parent must have 

 been a species which roosted and built its nest on rocks ; and 

 I may add that it must have been a social bird. For all the 

 domestic races are highly social, and none are known to build 

 or habitually to roost on trees. The awkward manner in which 

 some pigeons, kept by me in a summer-house near an old 

 walnut-tree, occasionally alighted on the barer branches, was 



1 Temminck, 'Hist. Nat. Gen. des Pigeons,' &c., torn. i. p. 191. 



