ough kept with other pigeons,
they rarely prove unfaithful to each other. Even when the {207} male does
break his marriage-vow, he does not permanently desert his mate. I have
bred in the same aviaries many pigeons of different kinds, and never reared
a single bird of an impure strain. Hence a fancier can with the greatest
ease select and match his birds. He will also soon see the good results of
his care; for pigeons breed with extraordinary rapidity. He may freely
reject inferior birds, as they serve at an early age as excellent food. To
sum up, pigeons are easily kept, paired, and selected; vast numbers have
been reared; great zeal in breeding them has been shown by many men in
various countries; and this would lead to their close discrimination, and
to a strong desire to exhibit some novelty, or to surpass other fanciers in
the excellence of already established breeds.

_History of the principal Races of the Pigeon_.[351]

Before discussing the means and steps by which the chief races have
been formed, it will be advisable to give some historical details, for
more is known of the history of the pigeon, little though this be, than
of any other domesticated animal. Some of the cases are interesting as
proving how long domestic varieties may be propagated with exactly the
same or nearly the same characters; and other cases are still more
interesting as showing how slowly but steadily races have been greatly
modified during successive generations. In the last chapter I stated
that Trumpeters and Laughers, both so remarkable for their voices, seem
to have been perfectly characterized in 1735; and Laughers were
apparently known in India before the year 1600. Spots in 1676, and Nuns
in the time of Aldrovandi, before 1600, were coloured exactly as they
now are. Common Tumblers and Ground Tumblers exhibited in India, before
the year 1600, the same extraordinary peculiarities of flight as at the
present day, for they are well described in the 'Ayeen Akbery.' These
breeds may all have existed for a much longer period; we know only that
they were perfectly characterized at the dates above given. The
_average_ length of life of the domestic pigeon is probably about five
or six years; if so, some of these races have retained their character
perfectly for at least forty or fifty generations.

_Pouters._--These birds, as far as a very short descript