me a very rash assumption. Moreover, the several
above-named domesticated breeds have been transported to all parts of
the world, and, therefore, some of them must have been carried back
again into their native country; but not one has ever become wild or
feral, though the dovecot-pigeon, which is the rock-pigeon in a very
slightly altered state, has become feral in several places. Again, all
recent experience shows that it is most difficult to get any wild
animal to breed freely under domestication; yet on the hypothesis of the
multiple origin of our pigeons, it must be assumed that at least seven
or eight species were so thoroughly domesticated in ancient times by
half-civilized man, as to be quite prolific under confinement.

An argument, as it seems to me, of great weight, and applicable in
several other cases, is, that the above-specified breeds, though
agreeing generally in constitution, habits, voice, colouring, and
in most parts of their structure, with the wild rock-pigeon, yet are
certainly highly abnormal in other parts of their structure: we may look
in vain throughout the whole great family of Columbidae for a beak like
that of the English carrier, or that of the short-faced tumbler, or
barb; for reversed feathers like those of the jacobin; for a crop like
that of the pouter; for tail-feathers like those of the fantail.
Hence it must be assumed not only that half-civilized man succeeded in
thoroughly domesticating several species, but that he intentionally or
by chance picked out extraordinarily abnormal species; and further, that
these very species have since all become extinct or unknown. So many
strange contingencies seem to me improbable in the highest degree.

Some facts in regard to the colouring of pigeons well deserve
consideration. 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 feathers
externally edged with white; the wings have two black bars; some
semi-domestic breeds and some apparently truly wild breeds have, besides
the two black bars, the wings chequered with black. These several marks
do not occur together in any other species of the whole family. Now, in
every one of the domestic breeds, taking thoroughly well-bred birds, all
the above marks, even to the white edging of the outer tail-feathers,
sometimes concur perfectly developed. Moreover, when