Page - 43 - in The Origin of Species

DOMESTIC PIGEONS 43 black marks in all the breeds, both when kept pure and when crossed;—and lastly, the mongrel offspring being perfectly fertile ; —from these several reasons, taken together, we may safely conclude that all our domestic breeds are descended from the rock -pigeon or Columba livia with its geographical sub-species. In favour of this view, I may add, firstly, that the wild C. livia has been found capable of domestication in Europe and in India ; and that it agrees in habits and in a great number of points of structure with all the domestic breeds. Sec- ondly, that, although an English carrier or a short-faced tumbler differs immensely in certain characters from the rock-pigeon, yet that, by comparing the several sub-breeds of these two races, more especially those brought from distant countries, we can make, between them and the rock-pigeon, an almost perfect series; so we can in some other cases, but not wath all the breeds. Thirdly, those characters which are mainly distinctive of each breed are in each eminently vari- able, for instance the wattle and length of beak of the carrier, the shortness of that of the tumbler, and the number of tail- feathers in the fantail ; and the explanation of this fact will be obvious when we treat of Selection. Fourthly, pigeons have been watched and tended with the utmost care, and loved by many people. They have been domesticated for thousands of years in several quarters of the world ; the ear- liest known record of pigeons is in the fifth Egyptian dy- nasty, about 3000 B.C., as was pointed out to me by Professor Lepsius ; but Mr. Birch informs me that pigeons are given in a bill of fare in the previous dynasty. In the time of the Romans, as we hear from Pliny, immense prices were given for pigeons; "nay, they are come to this pass, that they can reckon up their pedigree and race." Pigeons were much valued by Akber Khan in India, about the year 1600; never less than 20,000 pigeons were taken with the court. "The monarchs of Iran and Turan sent him some very rare birds;" and, continues the courtly historian, "His Majesty by cross- ing the breeds, which method was never practised before, has improved them astonishingly." About this same period the Dutch were as eager about pigeons as were the old Romans. The paramount importance of these considerations in ex-