200 DOMESTIC PIGEONS : Chap. TL 



Fernandez. Norfolk Island. Ascension, probably at Madeira, on 

 the shores of Scotland, and. as is asserted, on the "banks of the 

 Hudson in North America. 18 But how different is the case, 

 when we turn to the eleven chief domestic races of the pigeon, 

 which are supposed by some authors to be descended from so 

 many distinct species ! no one has ever pretended that any 

 one of these races has been found wild in any quarter of the 

 world ; yet they have been transported to all countries, and 

 some of them must have been carried back to their native 

 homes. On the view that all the races are the product of 

 variation. Ave can understand why they have not become feral, 

 for the great amount of modification which they have under- 

 gone shows how long and how thoroughly they have been 

 domesticated ; and this would unfit them for a wild life. 



Fourthly. — If it be assumed that the characteristic differences 

 between the various domestic races are due to descent from 

 several aboriginal species, we must conclude that man chose 

 for domestication in ancient times, either intentionally or by 

 chance, a most abnormal set of pigeons ; for that species 

 resembling such birds as Pouters, Fantails, Carriers, Barbs, 

 Short-faced Tumblers, Turbits, Arc would be in the highest 

 degree abnormal, as compared with all the existing members 

 of the great pigeon family, cannot be doubted. Thus we 

 should have to believe that man not only formerly succeeded 

 in th( ^roughly domesticating several highly abnormal species, 

 but that these same species have since all become extinct, or 



1S With respect to feral pigeons ducks, see Audubon's ' American Or- 



— for Juan Fernandez, see Bertero in nithology,' and Selys-Longchamp's 



' Annal. des So. Nat.,' torn. xxi. p. 351. ' Hebrides dans la Famille des Ana- 



For Norfolk Islands, see Rev. E. S. tides.' For the goose, Isidore Geoffroy 



Dixon in the ' Dovecote,' 1S51, p. 14, St.-Hilaire, ' Hist. Nat. Gen.,' torn. iii. 



on the authority of Mr. Gould. For p. 498. For guinea-fowls, see Gosse's 



Ascension I rely on MS. information ' Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica," 



given me by Mr. Layard. For the p. 124; and his 'Birds of Jamaica,' 



banks of the Hudson, see Blyth in for fuller particulars. I saw the 



' Annais of Xat. Hist..' vol. xx.. 1857, wild guinea-fowl in Ascension. For 



p. 511. For Scotland, see Macgillivray, the peacock, see 'A Week at Port 



' British Birds.' vol. i. p. 275 ; also Royal,' by a competent authoritv, 



Thompson's 'Xat. Hist, of Ireland, Mr. R. Hill. p. 42. For the turkey 



Birds,' vol. ii. p. 11. For ducks, see I rely on oral information; I ascer- 



Rev. E. S Dixon, ' Ornamental tained that they were not Curassows. 



Poultry/ 1847. p. 122. For the feral With respect to fowls 1 will give th^ 



hybrids of the common and musk- references in the next chapter. 



