20 
DOMESTIC PIGEONS. 
Chap. I. 
been produced by the crossing of a few aboriginal 
species; but by crossing we can only get forms in some 
degree intermediate between their parents; and if we 
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 species, 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- 
