THE ORIGIN OF THE VARIETIES OF PIGEONS. 81 



the wattle and length of beak of the Carrier, the shortness of that of the 

 Tumbler, and the number of tail-feathers in the Fantail, are in each breed 

 eminently variable : and the explanation of this fact will be obvious when wo 

 come to treat of selection. Fourthly, pigeons have been watched and tended 

 with the utmost care, and loved by many people. They have been domesticated 

 for thousands of years in several quarters of the world. The earliest known 

 record of pigeons is in the fifth Egyptian dynasty, about 3000 B.C., as was 

 pointed out to me by Professor Lepsius ; but Mr. Birch informs me that pigeons 

 are given in a bill of fare in the previous dynasty. In the time of the Komans, 

 as we hear from Pliny, immense prices were given for pigeons : ' Nay, they are 

 come to this pass, that they can reckon up their pedigree and race.' Pigeons were 

 much valued by Akber Khan in India, about the year 1600 : never less than 

 20,000 pigeons were taken with the court. ' The monarchs of Iran and Turan 

 sent him some very rare birds.' ' And,' continues the same courtly historian, 'his 

 Majesty, by crossing the breeds, which method was never practised before, has 

 improved them astonishingly.' About this same period, the Dutch were as eager 

 about pigeons as were the old Romans. 



" The paramount importance of these considerations, in explaining the 

 immense amount of variation which pigeons have undergone, is obvious. We 

 see how it is that the breeds so often have a somewhat monstrous character. 



" It is also a most favourable circumstance for the production of distinct breeds, 

 that male and female pigeons can be easily mated for life ; and thus different 

 breeds can be kept together in the same aviary." 



The success of the fancier in perpetuating the different varieties of pigeons 

 depends on the tendency in the young to reproduce the natural peculiarities of the 

 parents. It is always to be remembered that variations occurring naturally are 

 alone capable of being thus reproduced. Any artificial alteration has no effect on 

 the offspring, even when the same alteration is produced in many successive gene- 

 rations. Thus, in some tribes of North American Indians, the custom of flattening 

 the fore part of the skull has been constantly practised, but no child is ever born 

 with this peculiarity. Many generations of horses have had their tails docked in 

 obedience to the dictates of an absurd fashion, yet a breed of dock-tailed horses 

 has not been produced. Game cocks have had their combs and wattles cut 

 off for at least fifty generations, nevertheless, the young birds are always pro- 

 duced with these appendages of the full size. 



The perpetuation of variations artificially or accidentally produced would be 

 an evil of enormous magnitude. Were every accidental loss in the parent to 

 be reproduced in the offspring, no race of animals would be free from defects 

 that would go on increasing, generation after generation, and would ultimately 

 result in the extinction of the species. If the loss of a limb was thus trans- 

 mitted from father to son, the whole human race would, long ere this, have 

 been a generation of maimed and helpless cripples. 



On the other hand, any variation occurring naturally always has a tendency 



