20 DOMESTIC PIGEONS. Chap. I. 



account for our several domestic races by this process, 

 we must admit the former existence of the most extreme 

 forms, as the Italian greyhound, bloodhound, bull-dog, 

 &c, in the wild state. Moreover, the possibility of 

 making distinct races by crossing has been greatly ex- 

 aggerated. There can be no doubt that a race may be 

 modified by occasional crosses, if aided by the careful 

 selection of those individual mongrels, which present any 

 desired character ; but that a race could be obtained 

 nearly intermediate between two extremely different 

 races or speceies, I can hardly believe. Sir J. Sebright 

 expressly experimentised for this object, and failed. The 

 offspring from the first cross between two pure breeds 

 is tolerably and sometimes (as I have found with 

 pigeons) extremely uniform, and everything seems simple 

 enough ; but when these mongrels are crossed one with 

 another for several generations, hardly two of them will 

 be alike, and then the extreme difficulty, or rather utter 

 hopelessness, of the task becomes apparent. Certainly, 

 a breed intermediate between two very distinct breeds 

 could not be got without extreme care and long-con- 

 tinued selection ; nor can I find a single case on record 

 of a permanent race having been thus formed. 



On the Breeds of the Domestic Pigeon. — Believing 

 that it is always best to study some special group, I 

 have, after deliberation, taken up domestic pigeons. 

 I have kept every breed which I could purchase or 

 obtain, and have been most kindly favoured with 

 skins from several quarters of the world, more espe- 

 cially by the Hon. W. Elliot from India, and by the 

 Hon. C. Murray from Persia. Many treatises in dif- 

 ferent languages have been published on pigeons, and 

 some of them are very important, as being of con- 

 siderable antiquity. I have associated with several 

 eminent fanciers, and have been permitted to join two 



