152 PIGEONS. 



The conclusions at which Tenmrinck arrived respecting the specific differences 

 between the Fantail and the wild Eock dove were founded on an imperfect know- 

 ledge of the subject, and are not accepted by modern naturalists. 



The author of " The Dovecote and the Aviary," in his facile and pleasant 

 manner, plays, as usual, round about his subject, without giving us any new or 

 even accurate information respecting it. He states : — 



" Fantails are by no means the miserable degraded monsters that many writers 

 would induce us to believe them to be. They may be, and often are, closely kept 

 in cages, or dealers' pens, till they are cramped and out of health. The most 

 robust wild pigeon would become so under the same circumstances. But if fairly 

 used, they are respectably vigorous. It is a mistake to suppose that they are 

 deficient in power of flight, unless their muscles have been enfeebled by long incar- 

 ceration. Their tail is not so much in their way, and therefore not so unnatural 

 (if hard names be allowed to have any force) as the train of the peacock. It is 

 true, the tail of the Fantail consists, or ought to consist, of thirty-sis feathers — 

 three times the number which most other pigeons can boast of; but it is an excel- 

 lent aerial rudder, notwithstanding. 



" When Fantails breed with other pigeons, in the offspring sometimes the fan tail 

 entirely disappears, sometimes a half fan tail remains ; and I am cognizant of a 

 case where, by coupling a true Fantail with such a bird as the last mentioned, the 

 pure race was re-established. It is probable (but I am not able to state it) that in 

 this case the true Fantail was a male, and the half-bred of male Fantail parentage. 

 In cross-bred pigeons, as far as my own observations have gone, the male influence 

 is nearly paramount. Similar facts have also occurred in the much larger experi- 

 ence of the London Zoological Society, as I am assured by Mr. James Hunt, their 

 intelligent head keeper. Piesults with the same tendency have proceeded from 

 crosses in other genera, as is instanced in Lord Derby's wonderful experiment with 

 the common Colchicus and versicolor pheasants, as detailed in the December num- 

 ber of the Quarterly Review for 1850, by which it appears that a solitary male bird 

 may prove competent to introduce his species to Great Britain, by a temporary 

 alliance with a female quite an alien to his own blood. In a letter from Mr. 

 Edward Blythe, dated Calcutta, October 8, 1850, he kindly informs me, ' A native 

 friend of mine has this season bred two fine Hybrids between the male Pavo 

 muticus and the common peahen, apparently a male and a female. They take 

 much after the papa, and the male should be a splendid bird when he gets his full 

 plumage.' The same is the rule with many quadrupeds. Mules are not greatly 

 in favour with ladies and gentlemen in England, and therefore the less is known 

 about them by educated people; but the humbler class of horse and donkey 

 dealers will tell at once, by the ears and hoofs, as well as by the temper and dispo- 

 sition, whether any mule, offered for sale, had a mare or a donkey for its mamma. 

 The mule children of the latter animal are much more valuable, as they exhibit 

 not only the form, but the docility of the horse rather than of the ass. 



" Fantails are mostly of a pure snowy white, which, with their peculiar carriage, 



