two central tail-feathers
a little divergent, and the other from having the two outer feathers
longer by three-eighths of an inch than the others; so that in both
cases the tail exhibited a tendency, but in different ways, to become
forked. And this shows us how a swallow-tailed breed, like that
described by Bechstein, might have been formed by careful selection.

With respect to the primary wing-feathers, the number in the Columbidae,
as far as I can find out, is always nine or ten. In the rock-pigeon it
is ten; but I have seen no less than eight short-faced Tumblers with
only nine primaries, and the occurrence of this number has been noticed
by fanciers, owing to ten flight-feathers of a white colour being one
of the points in Short-faced Baldhead-Tumblers. Mr. Brent, however, had
an Air-Tumbler (not short-faced) which had in both wings eleven
primaries. Mr. Corker, the eminent breeder of prize Carriers, assures
me that some of his birds had eleven primaries in both wings. I have
seen eleven in one wing in two Pouters. I have been assured by three
fanciers that they have seen twelve in Scanderoons; but as Neumeister
asserts that in the allied Florence Runt the middle flight-feather is
often double, the number twelve may have been caused by two of the ten
primaries having each two shafts to a single feather. The secondary
wing-feathers are difficult to count, but the number seems to vary from
twelve to fifteen. The length of the wing and tail relatively to the
body, and of the wings to the tail, certainly varies; I have especially
noticed this in Jacobins. In Mr. Bult's magnificent collection of
Pouters, the wings and tail varied greatly in length; and were
sometimes so much elongated that the birds could hardly play upright.
In the relative length of the few first primaries I have observed only
a slight degree of variability. Mr. Brent informs me that he has
observed the shape of the first feather to vary very slightly. But the
variation in these latter points is extremely slight compared with what
may often be observed in the natural species of the Columbidae.

In the beak I have observed very considerable differences in birds of
the {160} same breed, as in carefully bred Jacobins and Trumpeters. In
Carriers there is often a conspicuous difference in the degree of
attenuation and cur