te; the croup in all was blue, or extremely pale blue, never
absolutely white. Blue barbs and trumpeters seem to be excessively rare;
but Neumeister, who may be implicitly trusted, figures blue varieties of
both, with black wing-bars. Mr. Brent informs me that he has seen a blue
barb; and Mr. H. Weir, as I am informed by Mr. Tegetmeier, once bred a
silver (which means very pale blue) barb from two yellow birds.

[340] Mr. Blyth informs me that all the domestic races in India have the
croup blue; but this is not invariable, for I possess a very pale blue
Simmali pigeon with the croup perfectly white, sent to me by Sir W. Elliot
from Madras. A slaty-blue and chequered Nakshi pigeon has some white
feathers on the croup alone. In some other Indian pigeons there were a few
white feathers confined to the croup, and I have noticed the same fact in a
carrier from Persia. The Java fantail (imported into Amoy, and thence sent
me) has a perfectly white croup.

[341] 'Les Pigeons,' &c., p. 37.

[342] 'Treatise on Pigeons,' 1858, p. 145.

[343] J. Moore's 'Columbarium,' 1735, in J. M. Eaton's edition, 1852, p.
71.

[344] I could give numerous examples; two will suffice. A mongrel, whose
four grandparents were a white turbit, white trumpeter, white fantail, and
blue pouter, was white all over, except a very few feathers about the head
and on the wings, but the whole tail and tail-coverts were dark
bluish-grey. Another mongrel, whose four grandparents were a red runt,
white trumpeter, white fantail, and the same blue pouter, was pure white
all over, except the tail and upper tail-coverts, which were pale fawn, and
except the faintest trace of double wing-bars of the same pale fawn tint.

[345] It deserves notice, as bearing on the general subject of variation,
that not only _C. livia_ presents several wild forms, regarded by some
naturalists as species and by others as sub-species or as mere varieties,
but that the species of several allied genera are in the same predicament.
This is the case, as Mr. Blyth has remarked to me, with Treron, Palumbus,
and Turtur.

[346] 'Denkmaler,' Abth. ii. Bl. 70.

[347] The 'Dovecote,' by the Rev. E. S. Dixon, 1851, pp. 11-13. Adolphe
Pictet (in his 'Les Origines Indo-Europeennes,' 1859, p. 399) states that
there are in the ancient Sanscrit language between 25 and 30 names for the
pigeon, and other 15 or 16 Persian names; none of these are common to the
European languages. This fact indicates