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Show 214 DOMESTIC PIGEONS. CHAP. VI. peculiarity in question would almost certainly be obliterated by free intercrossing. It might, however, occn,tJonally happen that the same variation repeatedly occurred, owing to the action of peculiar and uniform conditions of life, and in this cnse it would prevail independently of selection. But when selection is brought into play all is cbauo·ed; for this is the foundation-stone in the formation of new races; and with the pigeon, circumstances, as we have already seen, .are eminently favourable for selection. When a bird presenting some conspicuous variation has been preserved, and its om:;pring have been selected, carefully matched, and again propagated, and so onwards during succes~ive generations, the principle is so obvious that nothing more need be said about it. This may be called methodical selection, for the breeder has a distinct object in view, namely, to preserve some character which has actuttlly appeared; or to create some improvement already pictured in his mind. Another form of selection has hardly been noticed by those authors who have discussed this subject, but is even more important. This form may be called unconscious selection, for the breeder selects his birds unconsciously, .unintentionally, and without method, yet he surely though slowly produces a great result. I refer to the effects which follow from etteh faneier at :first procuring and afterwards rearing aS" good birds as he can, according to his skill, and according to the standard of excellence a~ each successive period. He docs not wish permaneutly to modtfy the breed; he does not look to the di::;tant future or specula~e on the final resnlt of the slow accumulation during m:wy generatiOns of successive slight changes: he is content if he possesses a good stock, and more than content if be can beat his rivals. The fancier in the time of Aldrovandi, when in the year 1600 he admired his own jacobins, pouters, or carriers, ne:ver reflected what their descendants in the year 1860 would become; he ~ould have ~bee~ astoni~hed could he have seen our jacobins, our Improved English earners, and our pouters; he would probably have denied that they were the descendants of his own once admired stock, and he would perhaps not have valued them, for no oth~r reason, as was written in 1765, "thun because they were not ~~ke what use_d to b_e thought good when he was in the fancy. No one Will attnbute the lengthened beak of the CHAP. VI. MANNER OF FORMATION OF TilE ClliEF RACES. 215 carrier, the shortened beak of the short-faced tumbler, the lengthened leg of the pouter, the more perfectly-enclosed hood of the jacobin, &c.,-changcs effected since the time of Al9rovandi, or even since a much later period,-to the direct and immediate action of the conditions of life. For these several races have been modified in various and even in directly opposite ways, though kept under the same climate and treated in all re ·pects in as nearly uniform a manner as possible. Each slight chango in the length or shortness of the beak, in the length of leg, &c., has no doubt been indirectly and remotely caused by ome change in the conditions to which the bird has been su1jectcd, but we must attribute the final result, as is manife t in those cases of whieh we have any historical record, to the continued selection and accumulation of many light successive variations. Th!J ac.tion of unconscious selection, as far as pigeons are concerned, depends on a universal principle in human nature, namely, on our rivalry, and desire to outJo our neighbours. We see this in every fleeting fashion, even in our dress, and it leads the fancier to endeavour to exaggerate every peculiarity in his breeds. A great aut.hority on pigeons 44 says, "Fanciers do not and will not admire a medium standard, that is, half and half, which is neither here nor there, but admire extremes." After remarking that the fancier of short-faced beard tumblers wishes for a very short beak, and that the fancier of long-faced beard tumblers wishes for a very long beak, he says, with respect to one of intermediate length, "Don't deceive yourself. Do you suppose for a moment the short or the long-faced fancier would accept such a bird as a ?ift.? Certainly not; the short-faced fancier could see no beauty m It; the long-faced fancier would swear there was no use in it, &c." In these comical passages, written seriously, we see the principle which has ever guided fanciers, and has led to such great modifications in all the domestic races which are valued solely for their beauty or curiosity. Fashions in pigeon-breeding endure for long periods ; we cannot change the structure of a bird as quickly as we can the fashion of our dress. In the time of Aldrovandi, no doubt the more the pouter inflated l1is crop, the more he was valued. Nevertheless, fashions do to a certain extent change ; first one H Eaton's 'Treatise on Pigeons,' 1858, p. 86. |