THE ORIGIN OF THE VARIETIES OF PIGEONS. 29 



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-civilized man, as to be quite prolific under confinement. 



" An argument, as it seems to me, of great weight, and applicable in several 

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

 stitution, habits, voice, colouring, and in most parts of their structure, with the 

 wild Eock Pigeon, yet are certainly highly abnormal in other parts of their struc- 

 ture, we may look in vain throughout the whole great family of Columbidce for a 

 beak like 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-civilized 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 seem to me improbable in the highest 

 degree. 



" Some facts in regard to the colouring of pigeons well deserve consideration. 

 The Eock Pigeon is of a slaty-blue, and has a white rump (the Indian sub-species, 

 C. intermedia of Strickland, having it bluish) ; the tail has a terminal dark 

 bar, with the bases of the outer feathers externally edged with white ; the wings 

 have two black bars ; some semi-domestic breeds and some apparently 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 two birds belonging to two distinct breeds are crossed, neither 

 of which is blue or has 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 tail and red spot on the forehead, and which notoriously 

 breeds very true. The mongrels were dusky and mottled. 



" I then crossed one of the mongrel Barb-Fantails with a mongrel Barb- Spot, 

 and they produced a bird of as beautiful a blue colour, with the white croup 

 (rump), double black wing-bars, and barred and white-edged tail-feathers, as 

 any wild Eock Pigeon ! We can understand these facts, on the well-known 

 principle of reversion to ancestral characters, if all the domestic breeds have 

 descended from the Eock Pigeon. But if we deny this, we must make one of 

 the two following highly improbable suppositions. Either, firstly, that all the several 

 imagined aboriginal stocks were coloured and marked like the Eock Pigeon, 



