198 



SELECTION. chap. XX. 



a 



you against having too great a variety of pigeons, 

 you will know a little of all, but nothing about 



■© 



it to be known." Apparently it transcends the power of 

 the human intellect to breed all kinds : " it is possible that 



there may be a few fanciers that have a good general know 



a 



ledge of fancy pigeons ; but there are many more who labour 



under the delusion of supposing they know what they do not." 

 The excellence of one sub-variety, the Almond Tumbler, lies in 

 the plumage, carriage, head, beak, and eye ; but it is too pre- 

 sumptuous in the beginner to try for all these points. The 

 great judge above quoted says, " there are some young fanciers 

 " who are over-covetous, who go for all the above five properties 



at once ; they have their reward by getting nothing." We 

 thus see that breeding even fancy pigeons is no simple art : we 

 may smile at the solemnity of these precepts, but he who laughs 

 will win no prizes. 



What methodical selection has effected for our animals is 

 sufficiently proved, as already remarked, by our Exhibitions. 



So greatly were the sheep belonging to some of the earlier 



a 



breeders, such as Bakewell and Lord Western, changed, that 

 many persons could not be persuaded that they had not been 

 crossed. Our pigs, as Mr. Corringham remarks, 19 during the 

 last twenty years have undergone, through 



& V11V ' ««"v«5" ^6 



19 ' Journal Eoyal Agricultural Soc.,' vol. vi. p. 22. 







together with crossing, a complete metamorphosis. The first 



exhibition for poultry was held in the Zoological Gardens in 



1 845 ; and the improvement effected since that time has been 



great. As Mr. Baily, the great judge, remarked to me, it was 



formerly ordered that the comb of the Spanish cock should be . 



upright, and in four or five years all good birds had upright 



combs ; it was ordered that the Polish cock should have no 



comb or wattles, and now a bird thus furnished would be at 



once disqualified ; beards were ordered, and out of fifty-seven j 



pens lately (1860) exhibited at the Crystal Palace, all had 



beards. So it has been in many other cases. But in all cases I \ 



the judges order only what is occasionally produced and what ' t 



can be improved and rendered constant by selection. The ; r 



steady increase of weight during the last few years in our 



