d rock-pigeon from
the Shetland Islands, or in the English dovecot. When the beaks of
these African pigeons were compared with the thinnest beaks of the wild
Madeira specimens, the contrast was great; the former being fully
one-third thicker in a vertical direction than the latter; so that any
one at first would have felt inclined to rank these birds as
specifically distinct; yet-so perfectly graduated a series could be
formed between the above-mentioned varieties, that it was obviously
impossible to separate them.

To sum up: the wild _Columba livia_, including under this name _C. affinis,
intermedia_, and the other still more closely-affined geographical races,
has a vast range from the southern coast of Norway and the Faroe Islands to
the shores of the Mediterranean, to Madeira and the Canary Islands, to
Abyssinia, India, and Japan. It varies greatly in plumage, being in many
places chequered with black, and having either a white or blue croup or
loins: it varies also slightly in the size of the beak and body.
Dovecot-pigeons, which no one disputes are descended from one or more of
the above wild forms, present a similar but greater range of variation in
plumage, in the size of body, and in the length and thickness of the beak.
There seems to be some relation between the croup being blue or white, and
the temperature of the country inhabited by both wild and dovecot pigeons;
for nearly all the dovecot-pigeons in the northern parts of Europe have a
white croup, like that of the wild European {187} rock-pigeon; and nearly
all the dovecot-pigeons of India have a blue croup like that of the wild
_C. intermedia_ of India. As in various countries the wild rock-pigeon has
been found easy to tame, it seems extremely probable that the
dovecot-pigeons throughout the world are the descendants of at least two
and perhaps more wild stocks, but these, as we have just seen, cannot be
ranked as specifically distinct.

With respect to the variation of _C. livia_, we may without fear of
contradiction go one step further. Those pigeon-fanciers who believe that
all the chief races, such as Carriers, Pouters, Fantails, &c., are
descended from distinct aboriginal stocks, yet admit that the so-called
toy-pigeons, which differ from the rock-pigeon in little except in colour,
are descended from this bird. By toy-pigeons are meant such birds as Spots,
Nuns, Helmets, Swallows, Priests, Monks, Porcelains, Swabian