Origin of Species Variorum

→ and has a white rump 1859 1860

and has a white croup 1861 1866

with white loins; 1869

with white loins; but 1872

→ having it bluish); the 1859 1860 1861 1866

having this part bluish; the 1869

has this part bluish. The 1872

→ bases of the 1859 1860 1861 1866

OMIT 1869 1872

→ with white; the 1859 1860 1861 1866

at the base with white; the 1869

at the base with white. The 1872

→ distinct 1859 1860

or more distinct 1861 1866 1869 1872

→ for instance, 1859 1860

To give one instance out of several which I have observed: — 1861 1866 1869 1872

↑ 3 blocks not present in 1859 1860; present in 1861 1866 1869 1872

white fantails, which breed very true, with some black barbs — and it so happens that blue varieties of barbs are so rare that I never heard of an instance in England; and the mongrels were black, brown, and mottled. I also crossed a barb with a spot, which is a white bird with a red tail and red spot on the forehead, and which notoriously breeds very true; the mongrels were dusky and mottled. I then crossed one of the mongrel barb-fantails with a mongrel barb-spot, and they produced a bird of as beautiful a blue colour, with the white croup, double black wing-bar, and barred and white-edged tail-feathers, as any wild rock-pigeon!

→ if 1859 1860 1866 1869 1872

(confined, as far as I have seen, to colour alone), if 1861

Some facts in regard to the colouring of pigeons well deserve consideration. The rock-pigeon is of a slaty-blue, →and has a white rump

the

(the

Indian sub-species, C.

inter- media

intermedia

of Strickland, →having it bluish); the tail has a terminal dark bar, with the →bases of the outer feathers externally edged →with white; the wings have two black

bars:

bars.

bars;

Some

some

semi-domestic

breeds,

breeds

and some

~~apparently~~

apparently

truly wild

breeds,

breeds

have, besides the two black bars, the wings chequered with black. These several marks do not occur together in any other species of the whole family. Now, in every one of the domestic breeds, taking thoroughly well-bred birds, all the above marks, even to the white edging of the outer tail-feathers, sometimes concur perfectly developed. Moreover, when

~~two~~

two

birds belonging to two →distinct breeds are crossed,

none

neither

of which

are

blue or

have

has

any of the above-specified marks, the mongrel offspring are very apt suddenly to acquire these

characters.

characters;

→for instance, I crossed

some

....

uniformly

some uniformly

white fantails with some uniformly black barbs, and they produced mottled brown and black birds; these I again crossed together, and one grandchild of the pure white fantail and pure black barb was of as beautiful a blue colour, with the white rump, double black wing-bar, and barred and white-edged tail-feathers, as any wild rock-pigeon! ↑ We can understand these facts, on the well-known principle of reversion to ancestral

characters

characters,

→if all the domestic breeds

are

have

descended from the rock-pigeon. But if we deny this, we must make one of the two following highly improbable suppositions. Either,

first,

firstly,

that all the several imagined aboriginal stocks were coloured and marked like the rock-pigeon, although no other existing species is thus coloured and marked, so that in each separate breed there might be a tendency to revert to the very same colours and markings. Or, secondly,