THE OBIGIN OF THE VARIETIES OF PIGEONS. 27 



except in constantly wanting the white above the tail. He had watched great 

 flocks of these birds, as especially those crowding about the many suitable nooks 

 of the great mosque of Aurungzebe, at Benares, looking down upon them from 

 the top of one of the two famous lofty minarets of that edifice, and had observed 

 in them no variation of colour; but this race particularly frequents large buildings 

 equally with rocky precipices, whether inland or by the sea-side, as also old ruinous 

 walls ; and in parts of the country where such do not occur, it breeds abundantly 

 far down the shafts of deep wells ; and in towns and villages it merges insensibly 

 into domesticity ; and among the more or less domesticated individuals are very 

 many that exhibit the spotted wing of the (so called) Columba affinis. He would, 

 moreover, remark that among the domestic pigeons of India, it is as rare to see the 

 white rump as is the reverse in Europe. In Middle x\sia another cognate race 

 exists in the Columba rupestris of Pallas, which occurs in Thibet and in the 

 British province of Kemaon. High upon the Himalayas there is the Columba 

 leuconota, which is another true rock pigeon, though differing more from the rest 

 in plumage ; and in Abyssinia, again, there is a peculiar corresponding race of 

 Blue Pigeon, which is denominated Columba schimperi ; as in Senegal there is 

 even another, denominated Columba gymnoeyclos, by Mr. G. R. Gray. The 

 decided use of applying names to such distinguishable geographical races was, 

 that each of them could thus be severally and definitively referred to by its special 

 designation. This was a practical advantage, wholly irrespective of the zoological 

 value to be attached to such appellation, about which there would of course be 

 difference of opinion. The whole of the races mentioned, Mr. Blyth fully 

 believed, would intermingle in domesticity, and produce completely fertile hybrids, 

 or, should he not rather call them sub-hybrids." 



There can be no doubt, as Mr. Blyth surmises, that all these races will inter- 

 mingle with the greatest readiness, and produce perfectly fertile progeny, which 

 can only be regarded as mongrels between different varieties or breeds, and not as 

 hybrids between two distinct species. 



Variations, however, of a much more striking character, not unfrequently occur 

 in single cases of wild birds ; but when they take place in a state of nature, they 

 are not very likely to be propagated, inasmuch as a bird with any variation of 

 plumage or form will almost of necessity mate with one of the ordinary character, 

 the offspring again do the same, so that in a very few generations all trace of 

 any singular variation is apt to be lost. 



In a state of domesticity, however, any singular variation would be noticed, and, 

 by careful selection of breeding stock, would be perpetuated, and even increased. 

 In this manner all the different breeds have been produced. Some Indian fanciers 

 in distant ages (for pigeons have been kept as domestic pets many hundreds of years 

 in India), observing that certain pigeons were produced with extra feathers in the 

 tails, mated them together, and again selecting those of the offspring that showed 

 the desired characters, succeeded eventually in producing the Fantail. Some short 

 time since a pigeon was forwarded to the writer, with a second or supplementary 



