Chap. VI. MANNER OF FORMATION OF THE CHIEF RACES. 221 



long beaks with much wattle, — barb-fanciers preferring short 

 thick beaks with much eye-wattle, — and runt-fanciers not caring 

 about the beak or wattle, but only for the size and weight of the 

 body. This process will have led to the neglect and final extinc- 

 tion of the earlier, inferior, and intermediate birds ; and thus 

 it has come to pass, that in Europe these three races are now 

 so extraordinarily distinct from each other. But in the East 

 whence they were originally brought, the fashion has been 

 different, and we there see breeds which connect the highly 

 modified English carrier with the rock-pigeon, and others which 

 to a certain extent connect carriers and runts. Looking back to 

 the time of Aldrovandi, we find that there existed in Europe, 

 before the year 1600, four breeds which were closely allied to 

 carriers and barbs, but which competent authorities cannot now 

 identify with our present barbs and carriers ; nor can Aldro- 

 vandi's runts be identified with our present runts. These four 

 breeds certainly did not differ from each other nearly so much 

 as do our existing English carriers, barbs, and runts. All this 

 is exactly what might have been anticipated. If we could collect 

 all the pigeons which have ever lived, from before the time of 

 the Romans to the present day, we should be able to group them 

 m several lines, diverging from the parent rock-pigeon. Each 

 line would consist of almost insensible steps, occasionally broken 

 by some slightly greater variation or sport, and each would 

 culminate m one of our present highly modified forms. Of the 

 many former connecting links, some would be found to have 

 become absolutely extinct without having left any issue, whilst 

 others, though extinct, would be seen to be the progenitors of 

 tne existing races. 



I have heard it remarked as a strange circumstance that we 

 occa S1 onall y hear of the local or complete extinction of domestic 

 laces whilst we hear nothing of their origin. How, it has been 

 TZlTf , SGS bG com P ens ^d, and more than com- 



th™ ^ ^ i °^ ^ With almost a11 domesticated animals 



IZJ BU * °; the ™w here given, we can understand 



SoZlT C ° ntradlCtl0n - The extinction of a race within 



and »r 1 -i r ^ Hkely t0 be noti ^ ; but its gradual 



and scarcely sensible modification through unconscious selection, 



