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Show 192 DOMESTIC PIGEONS. CHAP. VI. ractaristic differences between the chief domestic races are eminently variable: we see this pl~inly in the ?re~t difference in the number of the tail-feathers m the fantail, m the development of the crop in pouters, in t~e long~h of the beak in tumblers, in the state of the wattle m earners, &c. If these characters are the result of successive variations added together by selection, we can understand why they should be so variable: for these are the very parts which have varied since tho domestication of the pigeon, and therefore would be likely still to vary; these variations moreover have been recently, and are still being accumulated by man's selection; therefore they have not as yet become firmly fixed. Fijthly.-All the domestic races pair readily together, and, what is equally important, their mongrel offspring are perfectly fertile. rro ascertain this fact I made many experiments, wluch are given in the note below; and recently l\{r. Tegetmoior has made similar experiments with the same result.19 The accurate Neumeister 20 assorts that when dovecots 19 I have dmwn out n, long table of the various crosses mn.dc by fanciers btttwccn the s vcrrd domestic breeds, but I do not think it worth pub- . li shing. I have myself made for this special purpo ·e many crosses, and all were perfectly fertile. I have united in one bird fi.vc of the most distinct mccs, n,nd with pn.ticuoo I might undoubtedly hlLVO thus united all. The case of five distinct breeds being blended together with unimpn.ired fertility is important, because Giirtner has shown thnt it is n. very g noml, though not, as he thought, univcr ·olrule, that complex crosses between sovoml species m·e excessively sterile. I have m t with only two or three cases of reported sterility in the offspring of certain races when crossed. Von Pistor (' Das Gauze dcr Feld-tnubcnz~oht,' 1831, s. 15) assorts that the mongrels from barbs and fantails arc sterile : I have proved this to be enoncous, not only by crossing these hybrids with several other hybrids of the same parentage, but by the more severe tc t of pairing brother and sister hybrids inter se, and they were perfectly fertile. 'femminck has ststtcd (' !list. Nn.t. Gen. des Pigeons,' tom. i. p. 197) that the turbit or owl will not cro s readily with other breeds : but my turbits crossed, when left free, with almond tumblers and with trumpeters; the same thing has occurred (Rev. E. S. Dixon, 'The Dovecot,' p. 107) between turbits and dovecots and nuns. I have crossed turbits with barbs, as has M. Boitanl (p. 34), who says the hybrids were very fertile. Hybrids from a tw·bit and fantail have been known to breed inter se (Riedel, Tn.ubenzucht, s. 25, and B chstein, 'Naturgcsch. Deutsch.' B. iv. s. 44). Turbits (Riedel, s. 26) have been crossed with pouters and with jacobins, n.nd with a hybrid jacobintrumpcter (Riedel, s. 27 ). Tho latter author has, however, mn.de some vague statements (s. 22) on tho sterility of turlJits when cross d with certain other crossed breeds. But I have little doubt that the Ucv. E. S. Dixon'sexplanation of such statements is conect, viz. thn.t individual birds both with turbits and other breeds are occasionally sterile. 20 ' Das Gauze der Taubcnzucht,' s. 18. CIIAP. VI. TTIEIR PARENTAGE. 193 are crossed with pigeons of any other breed, the mongrels are extremely fertile and hardy. MM. Boitard and Corbie 21 af'firm, after their great experience, that with crossed pigeons the more distinct tho breeds, the more productive are their mongrel offspring. I admit that the doctrine first broached by Pallas is highly probable, if not actually proved, namely, that closely allied species, which in a state of nature or when first captured would have been. in some degree sterile when crossed, lose this sterility after a long course of domestication; yet when we consider the groat difference between such raees as pouters, carriers, runts, fantails, turbits, tumblers, &c., the fact of their perfect, or even increased, fertility when intercrossed in the most complicated manner becomes a strong argument in favour of their having all descended from a single species. This argument is rendered much stronger when we hear (I append in a note 22 21 'Los Pigeons,' &c., p. 35. 22 Domestic pigeons pair readily wilh the alliou 0. oenas (Bccltstcin, 'Naturgcsch. Dcutschlamls,' B. iv. s. 3) ; and Mr. Dr nt has malic the sn.mc cross several timrs in England, but tho young were very apt to die at about ten days old; one hybrid which he reared (from 0. oenas and a mnle Antwerp .cnrrier) paired with n, drngou, but never lnid eggs. Bcchstcin further states (s. 2G) that the domestic pigeon will cross with 0. palumbus, 'l'u1·tur riso1·ict, and '1'. vulgaris, but notlling is saitl of the fertility of the hybrids, and this would hn.vo been mentioned had the fact been ascertained. In the Zoological Gn.rdcns (MS. report to me from .Mr. James llunt) a male hybrid from Ttwtur vulgaris n.nd a domestic pigeon " paired with several different species of pigeons n.nd doves, but none of the eggs were good." Hybrids from 0. oenas and gymnophthalmos were sterile. In Loudon's' Mog. of Nat. Hist.' vol. vii. 1834, p. lM, it is said that a male hybrid (from Turtu'l' vulgaris male, and tho cream-coloured T. risoria female) paired during two years with .a female '1'. risoria, and the latter laid many eggs, but all were sterile. MM. Boitard and Corbic ('Los Pigeons,' p. 235) VOL. I. state that the hybrids from •these two tmtle-dovcs are invariably sterile both inter se and with either pure parent. 'The experiment was tried by M. Corbic "avec uno cspccc d'ohstination ;" and likewise by M. Manduyt, and by M. Vioillot. Tcmminck also found the hybrids from these two species quite Lnncn. Therefore, when Bechstcin (' Naturgcsch. Vogel. Dcutschln.nds,' B. 4, s. 101) assorts that the hybrids from these' two turtle-doves propagate inter se equally well with pm·c species, n.nd when a writer in the 'l!'icld' newspaper (in a letter dated Nov. lOth, 1858) makes a similn.r assertion, it would appear thn.t there must be some mistake; though what the mistake is I know not, as Bcchstcin at least must have known tho white variety of T.1·isoria: it would be an unparalleled fact if the ·nme two species sometimes produced extremely fertile, and sometimes extremely barron, oft'::lpring. In the MS. report from the Zoological Gardens it is said that hybrids from Turtur vulga1·is n.nd suratensis, and from T. vulgaris and Ectopistes migrat01·ius, were sterile. 'l'wo of the latter male hybrids paired with their pure pn.rents, viz. 'l'U?·tur vulgaris and the Ectopistes, and likewi~e with T. 1'iso1·ia and with Columba oenas, and 0 |