10 
CENTRAL HALL. 
Groups of 
Fowls and 
Canaries 
illustrating 
Variation 
under Domes- 
tication. 
Group of Qj^Q group, in a case near the entrance to the hall, on the 
Pigeons illus- . , ,° ^, . . , . , . . 
trating right, shows the great variation to which a species may become 
^der^Domes- ^^^^j'^^^ under the influence of domestication, as illustrated by 
tioation. choice examples of the best marked breeds of Pigeons, all of 
which have been derived by careful selection from the wild 
Eock Dove {Columba livia), specimens of which are shown at 
the top of the case. 
In the corresponding case on the left are further illustrations 
of the same subject. A pair of the Common Jungle Fowl of 
India shows what is generally considered to be the original form 
from which all the various breeds of domesticated fowls are 
derived. As examples of two of the most extreme modifica- 
tions in opposite directions which have been produced by 
artificial selection, are the Japanese Long-tailed Fowls, in which 
some of the feathers (coverts) have attained a length of nine 
feet, and specimens of another race kept in many parts of 
Europe in which the tail is entirely absent. There is also 
shown a group of Fowls which now live in a wild state in the 
woods of the Fiji Islands, but are descendants from domestic 
fowls introduced by the early voyagers of the eighteenth century. 
A pair of Cochin Fowls are also exhibited in the same case, in 
order to display development in point of size and in the 
abundance of feathers on the limbs. 
A series of Canaries are also shown in this case, as an 
example of one of the most recent additions to our stock of 
domesticated animals, these birds having been first imported 
into Europe from the Canary Islands in the early part of the 
sixteenth century. Specimens are exhibited of the wild birds, 
and of some of the most striking modifications which have been 
produced by cultivation through many generations. 
Group of Euflfs A case placed to the north of this illustrates a remarkable 
musuating instance of external variation in the two sexes and at different 
external Vari- seasons, not under the influence of domestication. The birds in 
Sg to^Sex'^and all belong to one species, the Euff (Pavoncella, or Machetes, 
Season. pur/nax), of which the female is called Keeve ; a member 
of the Plover family (Charadriidce). In the upper division 
of the case are shown the eggs, newly-hatched young, and 
young males and females in the first autumn plumage; 
as well as old males and females in winter, when both 
