Chap. I.J DOMESTIC PIGEONS. 27 



species of rock-pigeons are known; and these have 

 not any of the characters of the domestic breeds. 

 Hence the supposed aborigi-nal stocks must either 

 still exist in the countries where they were originally 

 domesticated, and yet be unknown to ornithologists; 

 and this, considering their size, habits, and remarkable 

 characters, seems improbable; or they must have 

 become extinct in the wild state. But birds breeding 

 on precipices, and good fliers, are unlikely to be ex- 

 terminated; and the common rock-pigeon, which has 

 the same habits with the domestic breeds, has not 

 been exterminated even on several of the smaller 

 British islets, or on the shores of the Mediterranean. 

 Hence the supposed extermination of so many species 

 having similar habits with the rock-pigeon seems a 

 very rash assumption. Moreover, the several above- 

 named domesticated breeds have been transported to 

 all parts of the world, and, therefore, some of them 

 must have been carried back again into their native 

 country; but not one has become wild or feral, though 

 the dovecot-pigeon, which is the rock-pigeon in a very 

 slightly altered state, has become feral in several places. 

 Again, all recent experience shows that it is difficult 

 to get wild animals to breed freely under domesti- 

 cation; yet 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-civilised man, as to be quite pro- 

 lific under confinement. 



An argument of great weight, and applicable in 

 several other cases, is, that the above-specified breeds, 

 though agreeing generally with the wild rock-pigeon 

 in constitution, habits, voice, colouring, and in most 



