16 DOMESTIC PIGEONS. [Chap. I. 



and a wide gape of mouth. The short-faced tumbler has a beak in 

 outline almost like that of a finch ; and the common tumbler has 

 the singular inherited habit of flying at a great height in a compact 

 flock, and tumbling in the air head over heels. The runt is a bird 

 of great size, with long massive beak and large feet ; some of the 

 sub-breeds of runts have very long necks, others very long wings 

 and tails, others singularly short tails. The barb is allied to the 

 carrier, but, instead of a long beak, has a very short and broad one. 

 The pouter has a much elongated body, wings, and legs ; and its 

 enormously developed crop, which it glories in inflating, may well 

 excite astonishment and even laughter. The turbit has a short and 

 conical beak, with a line of reversed feathers down the breast ; and 

 it has the habit of continually expanding, slightly, the upper part of 

 the oesophagus. The Jacobin has the feathers so much reversed 

 along the back of the neck that they form a hood ; and it has, pro- 

 portionally to its size, elongated wing and tail feathers. The 

 trumpeter and laugher, as their names express, utter a very different 

 coo from the other breeds. The fantail has thirty or even forty 

 tail-feathers, instead of twelve or fourteen — the normal number in 

 all the members of the great pigeon family : these feathers are kept 

 expanded, and are carried so erect, that in good birds the head and 

 tail touch: the oil-gland is quite aborted. Several other less 

 distinct breeds might be specified. 



In the skeletons of the several breeds, the development of the 

 bones of the face in length and breadth and curvature differs enor- 

 mously. The shape, as well as the breadth and length of the ramus 

 of the lower jaw, varies in a highly remarkable manner. The 

 caudal and sacral vertebra vary in number ; as does the number of 

 the ribs, together with their relative breadth and the presence of 

 processes. The size and shape of the apertures in the sternum are 

 highly variable ; so is the degree of divergence and relative size of 

 the two arms of the furcula. The proportional width of the gape 

 of mouth, the proportional length of the eyelids, of the orifice of 

 the nostrils, of the tongue (not always in strict correlation with the 

 length of beak), the size of the crop and of the upper part of the 

 oesophagus ; the development and abortion of the oil-gland ; the 

 number of the primary wing and caudal feathers; the relative 

 length of the wing and tail to each other and to the body ; the 

 relative length of the leg and foot ; the number of scutelhe on 

 the toes, the development of skin between the toes, are all points 

 of structure which are variable. The period at which the perfect 

 plumage is acquired varies, as does the state of the down with which 

 the nestling birds are clothed when hatched. The shape and size 



