416 
Dì D. FÉNYES 
Sérinus serinus canarius , tamed in the XYI th century. The Standard 
Breeds of the Canary, viz., the Common German, the Hartz (strains of 
Trute, Seifert, etc.), the Waterslager (Simili-Rossignol), the Bossu Belge 
(B. Gantois, Posturvogel), the Scotch Fancy (Glasgow Don), the Yorkshire, 
the Manchester, the Border Fancy, the London Fancy, the Lizard, the 
Cinnamon, the Frisé de Paris, the Frisé de Roubaix, the Frisé de Suisse, 
the Münchener Holländer, the Wiener Holländer etc., which originated 
under domestication, and whose evolution can he followed step by step, 
differ so much from each other and the Serinus s. canarius, that their diffe¬ 
rences are incomparably greater than any difference between the — about 
22 — species and sub-species belonging to the genus Serinus; the differences 
systematically increased within three and a half hundred years are even 
at least as great as any differences which can be observed between the — 
about 1187 — species and sub-species belonging to the — about 189 - 
genera of the Fringillidae. — Another example, not less striking, is supplied 
by the Fan-tailed Pigeon, a Scotch strain of which, of small size and faultless 
carriage, I bred for years ; this is a beautiful breed of the Domestic Pigeon, 
which again was descended from the Blue Rock or Columba livia. In the 
Order of Columbiformes (6 families, 94 genera and about 650 species and 
sub-species), the fossil genera Pezojphaps and Didus excepted, which had 
no real bird-tail, the number of tail feathers varies between 12 and 20, 
and is always 12 in the Family Columbidae (about 120 species and 
sub-species). Fan-tails with 86 feathers are not rare, and it is said that some 
specimens were found with 42. A perfect fan-tail, as required by the Stan¬ 
dard, must form three-fourths of a regular circle, and must be carried 
absolutely perpendicular ; too many feathers, however, would render the 
faultless carriage of the tail difficult, for which reason, and because of the 
fashionable taste, it is desirable to limit their number between 28 and 82. 
There is no doubt, that this circumstance alone prevents the increasing 
of the number of the tail feathers of the Fan-tailed Pigeon, by selection, 
over 42. Why did the number of the tail-feathers of the Fan-tailed Pigeon 
only become, in such a marked degree, increased in comparison with the 
12 of its ancestor? Would it not be quite absurd to suppose, that this meristic 
character was shifted by any other cause than selection? 
The individuals get their origin by the passing of the categories into 
each other ; they represent only grades of the changes and they themselves 
are variable too. Our senses fail, when we consider individuals instead of 
the categories. The very smallest category is, what seems to be the indivi¬ 
dual, the smallest biotype, and the variety, the smallest phænotype; the 
next biotype is the variety, and the fitting phænotype, the sub-species ; 
to the sub-species, as a biotype, comes the species, as a phænotype, and 
