| → disposition, differ re- markably. 1866 |
| disposition. 1859 1860 |
| disposition, differ remarkably. 1861 1869 1872 |
|
| → place 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| in this case place 1872 |
|
| → would have called 1866 1869 |
| might have called 1859 1860 1861 |
| would call 1872 |
|
| → the differences are 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| are the differences 1872 |
|
| → not breeding 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| they did not breed 1872 |
|
| →disposition, differ re- markably. Lastly, in certain breeds, the males and females have come to differ
a slight degree from each other. |
|
| Altogether at least a score of pigeons might be chosen,
if shown to an ornithologist, and he were told that they were wild birds, would
be ranked by him as well-defined species. Moreover, I do not believe that any ornithologist would
→place
the English carrier, the short-faced tumbler, the runt, the barb, pouter, and fantail in the same genus; more especially as in each of these breeds several truly-inherited sub-breeds, or
as he
→would have called
them, could be shown him. |
|
| Great as
→the differences are
between the breeds of
I am fully convinced that the common opinion of naturalists is correct, namely, that all
descended from the rock-pigeon (Columba livia), including under this term several geographical races or sub-species, which differ from each other in the most trifling respects. As several of the reasons which have led me to this belief are in some degree applicable in other cases, I will here briefly give them. If the several breeds are not varieties, and have not proceeded from the rock-pigeon, they must have descended from at least seven or eight aboriginal stocks; for it is impossible to make the present domestic breeds by the crossing of any lesser number: how, for instance, could a pouter be produced by crossing two breeds unless one of the parent-stocks possessed the characteristic enormous crop? The supposed aboriginal stocks must all have been rock-pigeons, that is,
→not breeding
or willingly
on trees. But besides C. livia, with its geographical sub-species, only two or three other species of rock-pigeons are known; and these have not any of the characters of the domestic breeds. Hence the supposed aboriginal stocks must either still
|
