Chap. VI. 



THEIR REVERSION IN COLOUR. 



205 



characters are not found in any wild pigeon besides C. lima. 

 I have looked carefully through the great collections of 

 pigeons in the British Museum, and I find that a dark bar at 

 the end of the tail is common ; that the white edging to the 

 outer tail-feathers is not rare ; but that the white croup is 

 extremely rare, and the two black bars on the wings occur in 

 no other pigeon, excepting the alpine C. leuconota and C. 

 rupestris of Asia. Now if we turn to the domestic races, it is 

 highly remarkable, as an eminent fancier, Mr. Wicking, 

 observed to me, that, whenever a blue bird appears in any 

 race, the wings almost invariably show the double black bars. 23 

 The primary wing-feathers may be white or black, and the 

 whole body may be of any colour, but if the wing- coverts are 

 blue, the two black bars are sure to appear. I have myself 

 seen, or acquired trustworthy evidence, as given below, 24 of 



23 There is one exception to the 

 rule, namely, in a sub-variety of the 

 Swallow of German origin, which is 

 figured by Neumeister, and was shown 

 to me by Mr. Wicking. This bird is 

 blue, but has not the black wing-bars ; 

 for our object, however, in tracing the 

 descent of the chief races, this ex- 

 ception signifies the less as the Swallow 

 approaches closely in structure to C. 

 livia. In many sub-varieties the black 

 bars are replaced by bars of various 

 colours. The figures given by Neu- 

 meister are sufficient to show that, if 

 the wings alone are blue, the black 

 wing-bars appear. 



24 I have observed blue birds with 

 all the above-mentioned marks in the 

 following races, which seemed to be 

 perfectly pure, and were shown at 

 various exhibitions. Pouters, with 

 the double black wing-bars, with 

 white croup, dark bar to end of tail, 

 and white edging to outer tail-feathers. 

 Turbits,with all these same characters. 

 Fantails with the same ; but the croup 

 in some was bluish or pure blue. Mr. 

 Wicking bred blue Fantails from two 

 black birds. Carriers (including the 

 Bagadotten of Neumeister) with all 

 the max'ks : two birds which I ex- 

 amined had white, and two had blue 



croups ; the white edging to the outer 

 tail-feathers was not present in all. 

 Mr. Corker, a great breeder, assures 

 me that, if black carriers are matched 

 for many successive generations, the 

 offspring become first ash-coloured, 

 and then blue with black wing-bars. 

 Runts of the elongated breed had the 

 same marks, but the croup was pale 

 blue ; the outer tail-feathers had 

 white edges. Neumeister figures the 

 great Florence Runt of a blue colour 

 with black bars. Jacobins are very 

 rarely blue, but I have received au- 

 thentic accounts of at least two in- 

 stances of the blue variety w T ith black 

 bars having appeared in England ; 

 blue Jacobins were bred by Mr. Brent 

 from two black birds. I have seen 

 common Tumblers, both Indian and 

 English, and Short-faced Tumblers, of 

 a blue colour, with black wing-bars, 

 with the black bar at the end of the 

 tail, and with the outer tail-feathers 

 edged with white ; the croup in all 

 was blue, or extremely pale blue, 

 never absolutely white. Blue Barbs 

 and Trumpeters seem to be excessively 

 rare ; but Neumeister, who may be 

 implicitly trusted, figures blue varie- 

 ties of both, with black wing-bars. Mr. 

 Brent informs me that he has seen a 



