OCR Text |
Show 210 DOMESTIC PIGEONS. CnAP. VI. H ·t ld appcn,. that thoro was a rather sudden chango in the cha-cnt ce. 1 f wthoou short-fa"c"e" d Tumbler at about thi.s perJ·O d ; and th er·e I·S reason rae cr o h t dwarfed and half-monstrous bird, tho parent-form of tho to suspect t a a d I oct this because several short-faced sub-breeds, then ap~earc . sus~ . . short-faced Tumblers are born with thc~r beaks. (asccrtar~wd b! caref~ measurement) as short, proportionally with the sJzo of therr bodws, as m the adult bird; and in this respect they .differ .greatly ~rom ~11 ?thor b:c.eds, which slowly acquire during growth thmr varwus char~ctenstic quaht10~. Since the year 1765 there has been some change m one of tho chief f t] h ·t c cd rrumblcr namely in the length of the beak. characters o 10 s ot -laC ' ' 1 h · tl " h d and beak" from the tip of the bea c to t e FanCJers measure 10 ea . 765 a "head and beak,· was front corner of the eyeball. About the year 1 . considered good,42 which, meaRurcd in the usua~ man~;~·, :vas~ of an mch in lcno'th · now :i.t ouO'ht not to exceed~ of an mch; It· IS how~vcr possible,'~ as' Mr. Eaton ocandiuly confesses, "for a bird to be con~Idercd as pleasant or neat even at 2 of an inch, but exceeding that length It must be looked upon as unworthy of attention." Mr. Eaton states th~t. he ~as never seen in the course of his lifo more than two or three buds :VIth tho "bead and beak" not exceeding half an inch in length; " s~Ill I believe in tho course of a few years that tho head and beak Will be shortened and that half-inch birds will not be considered so great a curiosity 'as at tho present time." That Mr. Eaton:s o?in~on d~serves attention cannot be doubted, considering his success m wmnmg pnzes at our exhibitions. Finally in regard to tho Tumbler it may be concluded from tho facts above given that it was originally introduced into Europe, probably first into England, from tho Ea. t; and that it t~en resemb~cd our common English Tumbler, or more probably the Persmn or Indian Tumbler, with a beak only just perceptibly shorter than that of ~he common dovecot-pigeon. With respect to tho short-faced Tumbler, whiCh is not known to exist in tho East, there can hardly be a doubt that tho whole wonderful change in the size of the I1ead, beak, body, and feet, and in general carriage, has been produced during the last two centuries by continued selection, aided probably by tho birth of a semi-monstrous bird somewhere about tho year 1750. Runts.-Of their history little can be said. In tho time of Pliny the pigeons of Campania were tho largest known; and from this fact alone some authors assert that they wore Runts. In Aldrovandi's time, in 1600, two sub-breeds existed; but one of them, the short-beaked, is now extinct in Europe. Earbs.-Notwithstanding statemen~s to tho contrary, it seems to me impossible to recognise the barb in Aldrovandi's descriptions and figures; four breeds, howcve1·, existed in the year 1600 which were evidently allied both to Barbs and Carriers. To show how difficult it is to recogniE.e some of the breeds described by Aldrovandi, I will give the different opinions in regard to the above four kinds, named by him 0. Ind-ica, 0Tetensis, Guttur ·osa., and Pe1·sica. Willughby thought that the Columba lnd·ica was a 42 J. M. Eaton's 'Treatise on the Breeding and Managing of the Almond Tumbler,' 1851. Compare p. v. of Preface, p. 9, and p. 32. CnAr. VI. lliSTORY OF THE PRINCIPAL RACES. 211 Turhit, but t.ho eminent fancier Mr. Brent believes that it was an inferior Barb: G. Oretc·nsis, with a short beak and a swelling on the upper mandible, cannot be recognised: 0. (falsely called) gutturosa, which from its rostrum, br1·ve, cm.~.~um, et tnberosum seems to me to como nearest to the Barb, Mr. Brent believes to be a Carrier; and lastly, the 0. Persica et Turcica, Mr. Brent thinks, and I quite concur with him, was a short-beaked Carrier with very little wattle. In 1687 tho Barb was known in England, and Will11ghby describes tho beak as like that of the Turbit; but it is not cr cliblc that his Barb should have had a bc::tk like that of our present birds, for so accurate an observer could not have overlooked its great breadth. Fn,qlish Carrier.-We may look in vain in Aldrovandi's work for any bird resembling our prize Carriers; tho 0. Persica et Tttrcicu of this author comes the nearest, but is said to have had a short thick beak; therefore it mnst have approacbccl in character a Barb, and have differed greatly from our Cart'iCrR. In Willughhy's time, in 1G77, we can clearly recognise the Carrier, but he adds, " the bill is not short, but of a moderate length," a description which no one would apply to our present Carriers, so conspicuous for tho extraordinary length of their beaks. The old names given in Europe to the Carrier, and the several names now in use in India, indic. ate that Carriers originally came from Persia; ·and Willughby's description would perfectly apply to the Bussorah Carrier as it now exists in ~adras. I~ later times we can partially trace the progress of change m our Enghsh Carriers : Moore in 1735 says "an inch and a half is reckoned a long beak, though there arc very good Carriers that are found not to exceed an inch and a quarter." These birds must have resembled or _perhaps been a little superior to, the Carriers, previously described: WhJCh arc now found in Persia. In England at the present day "there are,'~ as Mr. Eaton 48 states," beaks that would measure (from edge of eye to t1p of beak) one inch and three-quarters, and some few even two inches in length." From these historical details we see that nearly all the chief domestic races existed before the year 1600. Some remarkable only for colour appear to have been identical with our pre. ent breeds, some were nearly the same, some considerably different, and some have since become extinct. Several breeds, suc:h as Finnikins and Turners, the swallow-tailed pigeon of Beehstein and the Carmelite, seem both to have originated a~1~ ~o ltave disappeared within this same period. Any one now V1s1ttng a '..vell-stoc:ked English aviary would certainly pick out as the most distinct kinds, the massive Runt, the Carrier with ~ts wonderfully elongated beak and great wattles, the Barb with Its short broad beak and eye-wattles, the short-faced Tumbler 43 'Treatise on Pigeons,' 1852, p. 41. p 2 'I I ! I |