scriptions do not
suffice to show whether in these latter respects there has been much
improvement; but if fantails had formerly existed with their heads and
tails touching each other, as at the present time, the fact would
almost certainly have been noticed. The Fantails which are now found in
India probably show the state of the race, as far as carriage is
concerned, at the date of their introduction into Europe; and some,
said to have been brought from Calcutta, which I kept alive, were in a
marked manner inferior to our exhibition birds. The Java Fantail shows
the same difference in carriage; and although Mr. Swinhoe has counted
18 and 24 tail-feathers in his birds, a first-rate specimen sent to me
had only 14 tail-feathers.

_Jacobins._--This breed existed before 1600, but the hood, judging from
the figure given by Aldrovandi, did not enclose the head nearly so
perfectly as at present: nor was the head then white; nor were the
wings and tail so long, but this last character might have been
overlooked by the rude artist. In Moore's time, in 1735, the Jacobin
was considered the {209} smallest kind of pigeon, and the bill is said
to be very short. Hence either the Jacobin, or the other kinds with
which it was then compared, must have been since considerably modified;
for Moore's description (and it must be remembered that he was a
first-rate judge) is clearly not applicable, as far as size of body and
length of beak are concerned, to our present Jacobins. In 1795, judging
from Bechstein, the breed had assumed its present character.

_Turbits._--It has generally been supposed by the older writers on
pigeons, that the Turbit is the Cortbeck of Aldrovandi; but if this be
the case, it is an extraordinary fact that the characteristic frill
should not have been noticed. The beak, moreover, of the Cortbeck is
described as closely resembling that of the Jacobin, which shows a
change in the one or the other race. The Turbit, with its
characteristic frill and bearing its present name, is described by
Willughby in 1677; and the bill is said to be like that of the
bullfinch,--a good comparison, but now more strictly applicable to the
beak of the Barb. The sub-breed called the Owl was well known in
Moore's time, in 1735.

_Tumblers._--Common Tumblers, as well as Ground Tumblers, perfect as