192 



DOMESTIC PIGEONS. 



Chap. VI 



racteristic differences between the chief domestic races are 

 eminently variable : we see this plainly in the great difference 

 in the number of the tail-feathers in the fantail, in the deve- 

 lopment of the crop in pouters, in the length of the beak in 

 tumblers, in the state of the wattle in carriers, &c. If these 

 characters are the result of successive variations added together 

 by selection, we can understand why they should be so variable • 

 for these are the very parts which have varied since the domes- 

 tication of the pigeon, and therefore would be likely still to vary • 

 these variations moreover have been recently, and are still being 

 accumulated by man's selection ; therefore they have not as 

 yet become firmly fixed. 



Fifthly. — All the domestic races pair readily together, and 

 what is equally important, their mongrel offspring are per- 

 fectly fertile. To ascertain this fact I made many experi- 

 ments, which are given in the note below; and recently 

 Mr. Tegetmeier has made similar experiments with the same 

 result. 19 The accurate Neumeister 20 asserts that when dovecots 



19 I have drawn out a long table of 

 the various crosses made by fanciers 

 between the several domestic breeds, 

 but I do not think it worth pub- 

 lishing. I have myself made for this 

 special purpose many crosses, and all 

 were perfectly fertile. I have united 

 in one bird five of the most distinct 

 races, and with patience I might un- 

 doubtedly have thus united all. The 

 case of five distinct breeds being blended 

 together with unimpaired fertility is 

 important, because Gartner has shown 

 that it is a very general though not, 

 as he thought, universal rule, that com- 

 plex crosses between several species are 

 excessively sterile. I have met with 

 only two or three cases of reported 

 sterility in the offspring of certain races 

 when crossed. Von Pistor (' Das Ganze 

 der Feld-taubenzucht/ 1831, s. 15) 

 asserts that the .mongrels from barbs 

 and fantails are sterile : I have proved 

 this to be erroneous, not only by cross- 

 ing these hybrids with several other 

 hybrids of the same parentage, but by 

 the more severe test of pairing brother 

 and sister hybrids inter se, and they 

 were perfectly fertile. Temminck has 



stated (' Hist. Nat. Gen. des Pigeons,' 

 torn. i. p. 197) that the turbit or owl 

 will not cross readily with other 

 breeds : but my turbits crossed, when 

 left free, with almond tumblers and 

 with trumpeters ; the same tiling has 

 occurred (Eev. E. S. Dixon, 'The 

 Dovecot,' p. 107) between turbits and 

 dovecots and nuns. I have crossed 

 turbits with barbs, as has M. Boitard 

 (p. 34), who says the hybrids were 

 very fertile. Hybrids from a turbit 

 and fantail have been known to breed 

 inter se (Kiedel, Taubenzucht, s. 25, 

 and Bechstein, 'Naturgesch. Deutsch.' 

 B. iv. s. 44. Turbits (Eiedel, s. 26) 

 have been crossed with pouters and with 

 jacobins, and with a hybrid jacobin- 

 trumpeter (Kiedel, s. 27). The latter 

 author has, however, made some vague 

 statements (s. 22) on the sterility of 

 turbits when crossed with certain other 

 crossed breeds. But I have little doubt 

 that the Eev. E. S. Dixon's explanation 

 of such statements is correct, viz. that 

 individual birds both with turbits and 

 other breeds are occasionally sterile. 



20 'Das Ganze der Taubenzucht,' 

 s. 18. 



