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Show 144 DOMESTIC PIGEONS. CIIAI'. v. and agrees pretty closely with tho last sub-race; tho other, with shorter wings and tail, is apparently tho Pigeon Roma·in ordinai?·e of Boitard and Corbi6. These HuntR arc apt to tremble like Fantails. They aro bad flyers. A few years ago Mr. Gullivor 11 exhibited a Runt which weighed 1 lb. 14 oz.; and, as I am informed by Mr. Togotmeior, two Runt. from tho south of Franco wore lately exhibited at tho Crystal Palaeo, o;tch of which weighed 2 lbs. 2~ oz. A very fino rock-pigeon from tho Shetland Islands weighed only 1M oz. Snb-Tace J V. 'l'r·o??jo of Aldrovand·i (Leghorn Runt?).-In Aldrovandi's work publi. heel in 1600 there is a coarse woodcut of a groat Italian pigeon, with an elevated tail, short legs, massive body, and with tho beak short and thick. I had imagined that this latter character, so abnormal in tho group, was merely a false representation from bad drawing; but Moore, in his work published in 1735, says that ho possessed a Leghorn Runt of which "tho beak was very short for so large a bird." In other respects Moore's bil·d resembled tho first sub-rn.co or Scanderoon, for it had a lono· bowed neck, long legs, short beak, and elevated tail, and not much wattle about tho head. So that Aldrovandi's and Moore's birds must have formed distinct varieties, both of which seem to be now extinct in Europe. Sir W. Elliot, however, informs me that ho has seen in Madras a short-beaked Runt imported from Cail'o. Sub-race V. Muras~a (ado1'ned Pig on) of Madras.- Skins of these hand-some chequcrcd birds wore sent mo from Madras by Sir W. Elliot. They arc rather larger than tho largest rock-pigeon, with longer and more massive beaks. Tho skin over tho nostrils is rather full and very slightly carunculated, and they have some naked skin round tho eyes : feet largo. This brood is intermediate between the rock-pigeon and a very poor variety of Runt or Carrier. From those sovoml descriptions we soc that with Runts, as with Carriers, we have a fino gradation from tho rock-pigeon (with tho Tronfo diverging as a distinct branch) to our largest and most massi vo Runts. But tho chain of affi.nitic ·, and many points of rosomblanco, between Runts and CaniorR, make me believe that those two races have not descended by independent lines from tho rock-pigeon, but from some common parent, as represented in tho Table, which had already acquired a moderately long beak, with slightly swollen skin over the nostrils, and with some slightly carunculatcd nak d skin round tho eyes. RACE IV.-B.A.RBS. (Indische-Taube: Pjgeons Polonais.) Beale short, broad, deep ; nalced slcin round the eyes, broad and carunculated; slcin over nostrils slightly swollen. 1\tislcd by tho extraordinary shortness and form of tho beak, I did not at first perceive tho ncar affinity of this Haec to that of Carriers until the fact was pointed out to me by Mr. Brent. Subsequently, after examining ll ' Poultry Ullroniclo,' vol. ii. p. 573. CHAP. v. DESCRIPTION OF BREEDS. 145 ~~ Bussorah .c~rrier, I saw that no very great amount of modification B ~ld be roq~s1U: to convert it into a Barb. This view of tho affinity of a~ b; to Carl'lers IS supported by tho analogical difference between the short ~n b ong-bcaked Runts; and still more strongly by tho fact that young ar s and Dragons, within 24 hours after being hatched, r~scmblc each doitshteirn cmt burcehe dms oreA ~1~ : 1y tha n d° young pi.g eons of other and equally the rather o . . s early ago, the length of beak, the swollen skin over th . pen nostrils, the gape of tho mouth, and tho size of tho feet arc we ~~me m both; although those parts afterwards become widely diffe;·ent e ms see that embryology (as tho comparison of very young animal~ VOL. I. L |