| I have discussed the probable origin of domestic pigeons at some, yet quite insufficient, length; because when I first kept pigeons and watched the several kinds,
how
they
I felt fully as much difficulty in believing that
→since they had been domesticated they had all proceeded
from a common parent, as any naturalist could in coming to a similar conclusion in regard to the many species of finches, or other
groups of birds, in nature. One circumstance has struck me much; namely, that
the breeders of the various domestic animals and the cultivators of plants, with whom I have
conversed, or whose treatises I have read, are firmly convinced that the several breeds to which each has attended, are descended from so many aboriginally distinct species. Ask, as I have asked, a celebrated raiser of Hereford cattle, whether his cattle might not have descended from
→or both from a common parent-stock, and
he will laugh you to scorn. I have never met a pigeon, or poultry, or duck, or rabbit fancier, who was not fully convinced that each main breed was descended from a distinct species. Van Mons, in his treatise on pears and apples, shows how utterly he disbelieves that the several sorts, for instance a Ribston-pippin or Codlin-apple, could ever have proceeded from the seeds of the same tree. Innumerable other examples could be given. The explanation, I think, is simple: from long-continued study they are strongly impressed with the differences between the several races; and though they well know that each race varies slightly, for they win their prizes
|
