266 
HAROLD’S DISCUSSIONS. 
wings and long pointed tail; the clever carrier, the 
beautiful fantail, the hooded jacobin; the pouter, 
with its ridiculously inflated crop ; the tumbler, which 
has the peculiar habit of turning somersaults in the 
air as it flies, and so on. It seems that almost every 
part of the pigeon has been seized upon for special 
development, and that, too, with success. 
All of these variations are the product of selection 
from the original blue rock-pigeon. Now and then 
reversions occur which prove this. It is well known 
that crossing has a tendency to produce reversion. 
Mr. Darmn succeeded in breeding pigeons back to 
the original stock, and that by a very short route. 
He paired a barb fantail with a barb spot, neither of 
which had any blue color on them, and produced a 
pigeon resembling in every way the original blue rock. 
Thus far I have mentioned variations produced 
by man’s agency in selection. This is sometimes 
called artiflcial selection. You will ask, “ Does Na¬ 
ture also carry on this process ? ” 
A little observation along this line would soon con¬ 
vince the most skeptical that Nature does. Mr. Dar¬ 
win collected much material bearing on the subject, 
and so did Mr. Wallace. The former used the term 
Natural Selection. Now, how can Nature make 
selections ? 
Take the nettle, for instance. It has stin^inff 
bristles, evidently for its protection. It has been 
stated that all living forms are subject to a struggle, 
and that not all come off victorious. Once the nettle 
did not have the bristles. Now, suppose that ages ago 
