18 DOMESTIC PIGEONS. [Chap. I. 



again into their native country ; but not one has become wild or 

 feral, though the dovecot-pigeon, which is the rock-pigeon in a very 

 slightly altered • state, has become feral in several places. Again, 

 all recent experience shows that it is difficult to get wild animals to 

 breed freely under domestication; yet, on the hypothesis of the 

 multiple origin of our pigeons, it must be assumed that at least 

 seven or eight species were so thoroughly domesticated in ancient 

 times by half-civilised man, as to be quite prolific under con- 

 finement. 



An argument of great weight, and applicable in several other 

 cases, is, that the above-specified breeds, though agreeing generally 

 with the wild rock-pigeon in constitution, habits, voice, colouring, 

 and in most parts of their structure, yet are certainly highly abnor- 

 mal in other parts ; we may look in vain through the whole great 

 family of Columbidaj for a beak Uke that of the English carrier, or 

 that of the short-faced tumbler, or barb ; for reversed feathers like 

 those of the Jacobin ; for a crop like that of the pouter ; for tail- 

 feathers like those of the fantail. Hence it must be assumed not 

 only that half-civilised man succeeded in thoroughly domesticating 

 several species, but that he intentionally or by chance picked out 

 extraordinarily abnormal species; and further, that these very 

 species have since all become extinct or unknown. So many strange 

 contingencies are improbable in the highest degree. 



Some facts in regard to the colouring of pigeons well deserve 

 consideration. The rock-pigeon is of a slaty-blue, with white loins; 

 but the Indian sub-species, C. intermedia of Strickland, has this 

 part bluish. The tail has a terminal dark bar, with the outer 

 feathers externally edged at the base with white. The wings have 

 two black bars. Some semi-domestic breeds, and some truly wild 

 breeds, have, besides the two black bars, the wings chequered with 

 black. These several marks do not occur together in any other 

 species of the whole family. Now, in every one of the domestic 

 breeds, taking thoroughly well-bred birds, all the above marks, even 

 to the white edging of the outer tail-feathers, sometimes concur 

 perfectly developed. Moreover, when birds belonging to two or 

 more distinct breeds are crossed, none of -which are blue or have 

 any of the above-specified marks, the mongrel offspring are very 

 apt suddenly to acquire these characters. To give one instance out of 

 several which I have observed : — I crossed some white fantails, which 

 breed very true, with some black barbs — and it so happens that 

 blue varieties of barbs are so rare that I never heard of an instance 

 in England ; and the mongrels were black, brown, and mottled. I 

 also crossed a barb with a spot, which is a white bird with a red 



