ome facts in regard to the colouring of pigeons well deserveconsideration

ome facts in regard to the colouring of pigeons well deserveconsideration. The rock-pigeon is of a slaty-blue, and has a white rump( the Indian sub-species, C. intermedia of Strickland, having it bluish);the tail has a terminal dark bar with the bases of the outer feathersextemally edged with white, the wings have two black bars, somesemi-domestic breeds and some apparently truly wild breeds have,besides the two black bars, the wings chequered with black.

Theseseveral marks do not occur together in any other species of the wholefamily. Now, in every one of the domestic breeds, taking thoroughlywell-bred birds, all the above marks, even to the white edging of theouter tail-feathers, sometimes concur perfectly developed. Moreoverwhen two birds belonging to two distinct breeds are crossed, neither ofwhich is blue or has any of the above-specified marks, the mongrelfispring are very apt suddenly to acquire these characters, forinstance, I crossed some uniformly white fantails with some uniformlyblack barbs, and they produced mottled brown and black birds, theseI again crossed together, and one grandchild of the pure white fantailand pure black barb was of as beautiful a blue colour, with the whiterump, double black wing-bar, and barred and white-edged tail-feathersas any wild rock-pigeon! We can understand these facts, on thewell-known principle of reversion to ancestral characters, if all thedomestic breeds have descended from the rock-pigeon. But if we denythis, we must make one of the two following highly improbablesuppositions. Either, firstly, that all the several imagined aboriginalstocks were coloured and marked like the rock-pigeon, although noother existing species is thus coloured and marked, so that in eachseparate breed there might be a tendency to revert to the very samecolours and markings. Or, secondly, that each breed, even the purest,has within a dozen or, at most, within a score of generations, beencrossed by the rock-pigeon: I say within a dozen or twenty generationsfor we know of no fact countenancing the belief that the child everreverts to some one ancestor, removed by a greater number ofgenerations. In a breed which has been crossed only once with somedistinct breed, the tendency to reversion to any character derived fromsuch cross will naturally become less and less, as in each succeedinggeneration there will be less of the foreign blood, but when there hasbeen no cross with a distinct breed, and there is a tendency in bothparents to revert to acharacter, which has been lost during some formergeneration, this tendency, for all that we can see to the contrary, maybe transmitted undiminished for an indefinite number of generations.These two distinct cases are often confounded in treatises onnheritance

Lastly, the hybrids or mongrels from between all the domestic breedsf pigeons are perfectly fertile. I can state this from my ownobservations, purposely made on the most distinct breeds. Now, it isdifficult, perhaps impossible, to bring forward one case of the hybridoffspring of two animals clearly distinct being themselves perfectlyfertile. Some authors believe that long-continued domesticationeliminates this strong tendency to sterility. from the history of the dog Ithink there is some probability in this hypothesis, if applied to speciesclosely related together, though it is unsupported by a singleexperiment. But to extend the hypothesis so far as to suppose thatspecies, aboriginally as distinct as carriers, tumblers, pouters, andfantails now are, should yield offspring perfectly fertile, inter se, seemsto me rash in the extremeFrom these several reasons, namely, the improbability of man havingformerly got seven or eight supposedspecies of pigeons to breed freelyunder domestication, these supposed species being quite unknown ina wild state, and their becoming nowhere feral; these species havingvery abnormal characters in certain respects, as compared with allother Columbidae, though so like in most other respects to therock-pigeon, the blue colour and various marks occasionally appearingin all the breeds, both when kept pure and when crossed, the mongreloffspring being perfectly fertile; -from these several reasons, takentogether, I can feel no doubt that all our domestic breeds havedescended from the Columba livia with its geographical sub-species

In favour of this view, I may add. firstly, that C. livia, or therock-pigeon, has been found capable of domestication in Europe andin India, and that it agrees in habits and in a great number of points ofstructure with all the domestic breeds. Secondly, although an Englishcarrier or short-faced tumbler differs immensely in certain charactersfrom the rock-pigeon, yet by comparing the several sub-breeds of thesebreeds, more especially those brought from distant countries, we canmake an almost perfect series between the extremes of structure.Thirdly, those characters which are mainly distinctive of each breed.for instance the wattle and length of beak of the carrier, the shortnessof that of the tum bler. and the number of tail-feathers in the fantail. arein each breed eminently variable, and the explanation of this fact willbe obvious when we come to treat of selection. Fourthly, pigeons havebeen watched, and tended with the utmost care, and loved by manypeople. They have been domesticated for thousands of years in severalquarters of the worid, the earliest known record of pigeons is in the fifthEgyptian dynasty, about 3000 B.C., as was pointed out to me byProfessor Lepsius, but Mr Birch informs me that pigeons are given ina bill of fare in the previous dynasty. In the time of the Romans, as wehear from Pliny, immense prices were given for pigeons; nay, they arecome to this pass, that they can reckon up their pedigree and race.Pigeons were much valued by Akber Khan in India, about the year1600, never less than 20,000 pigeons were taken with the court. Themonarchs of Iran and Turan sent him some very rare birds, andcontinues the courtly historian, His Majesty by crossing the breedswhich method was never practised before, has improved themastonishingly. About this same period the Dutch were as eager aboutpigeons as were the old Romans. The paramount importance of theseconsiderations in explaining the immense amount of variation whichpigeons have undergone, will be obvious when we treat of SelectionWe shall then. also. see how it is that the breeds so often have aom ewhat monstrous character. It is also a most favourablecircumstance for the production of distinct breeds, that male and femalepigeons can be easily mated for life, and thus different breeds can bekept together in the same aviary