enerally much less deeply notched than in wild
rabbits. Certain parts of the scapula and the terminal sternal bones have
become highly variable in shape. The ears have been increased enormously in
length and breadth through continued selection; their weight, conjoined
probably with the disuse of their muscles, has caused them to lop
downwards; and this has affected the position and form of the bony auditory
meatus; and this again, by correlation, the position in a slight degree of
almost every bone in the upper part of the skull, and even the position of
the condyles of the lower jaw.

* * * * *

{131}

CHAPTER V.

DOMESTIC PIGEONS.

ENUMERATION AND DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL BREEDS--INDIVIDUAL
VARIABILITY--VARIATIONS OF A REMARKABLE NATURE--OSTEOLOGICAL
CHARACTERS: SKULL, LOWER JAW, NUMBER OF VERTEBRAE--CORRELATION OF
GROWTH: TONGUE WITH BEAK; EYELIDS AND NOSTRILS WITH WATTLED
SKIN--NUMBER OF WING-FEATHERS, AND LENGTH OF WING--COLOUR AND
DOWN--WEBBED AND FEATHERED FEET--ON THE EFFECTS OF DISUSE--LENGTH OF
FEET IN CORRELATION WITH LENGTH OF BEAK--LENGTH OP STERNUM, SCAPULA,
AND FURCULA--LENGTH OF WINGS--SUMMARY ON THE POINTS OF DIFFERENCE IN
THE SEVERAL BREEDS

I have been led to study domestic pigeons with particular care, because the
evidence that all the domestic races have descended from one known source
is far clearer than with any other anciently domesticated animal. Secondly,
because many treatises in several languages, some of them old, have been
written on the pigeon, so that we are enabled to trace the history of
several breeds. And lastly, because, from causes which we can partly
understand, the amount of variation has been extraordinarily great. The
details will often be tediously minute; but no one who really wants to
understand the progress of change in domestic animals will regret this; and
no one who has kept pigeons and has marked the great difference between the
breeds and the trueness with which most of them propagate their kind, will
think this care superfluous. Notwithstanding the clear evidence that all
the breeds are the descendants of a single species, I could not persuade
myself until some years had passed that the whole amount of difference
between them had arisen since man first domesticated the wild rock-pigeon.

I have kept alive all the most distinct breeds, which I could procure in
England or from the Continent; a