CHAPTER III. 



THE OEIGIN OF THE VARIETIES OF PIGEONS. 



HATTXG- treated at length of the structure and habits of the Rock Dove, it is 

 now desirable to enter upon the consideration of the production of the 

 numerous varieties of Pigeons that are known to naturalists and fanciers, and 

 which are regarded by all who have carefully studied the subject as being descended 

 from the one wild species which has been so fully described in the last chapter. 



The Rock Dove is one of those animals that is capable of being domesticated by 

 man. The opinion that the majority of animals could be domesticated is one that 

 is very generally prevalent, but has no foundation whatever in fact. For example, 

 if a pair of eggs from the nest of a wild Blue Rock are placed under a domestic 

 pigeon that has been sitting the same length of time as the birds from which the 

 eggs were taken, the latter will produce a pair of Blue Rocks, that will become 

 domesticated, being attached to their domus, or home. 



On the other hand, if a pair of eggs from the Stock Dove (Columba anas), or the 

 Ring Dove (Columba palumbus), be treated in a precisely similar manner, the birds 

 so produced will not become domesticated. There is precisely the same difference 

 between the fowl and the pheasant. The former is so attached to its home that 

 the return of the brood at night has given rise to the proverb that " Curses, like 

 chickens, always come home to roost." The pheasants, on the other hand, may 

 have been tame-bred for twenty generations, and yet are no nearer true domestica- 

 tion than their wild progenitors. 



The ease with which the Rock Dove is domesticated may be gathered from the 

 anecdote so exquisitely told by Macgillivray in the last chapter (page 20) . This 

 capability of perfect domestication is one of the conditions necessary to the produc- 

 tion of distinct and numerous varieties. 



It is well known that all animals, even those living in perfectly natural condi- 

 tions, are subject to certain variations, such as those of colour, form, size, &e. 

 Thus we have not unfrequent examples of white moles, blackbirds, and other 

 animals ; and changes of form and size are equally common. 



In birds as extensively distributed as the Rock Dove (Columba livia), slight local 

 or geographical variations constantly occur. Thus, in India, all the wild Blue Rocks 

 have ash-coloured feathers over the rump, whereas the European birds have, as is 

 well known, white rumps ; and, as is well known to most fanciers, this white rump 

 is one of the most difficult points to " breed out " in any of our Blue varieties ; 

 whereas the Blue breeds derived from the Indian birds have, as might be expected, 



E 



