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 the wattle and length of beak of the Carrier, the shortness of that of the Tumbler, and the number of tail-feathers in the Fantail, are in each breed eminently variable: and the explanation of this fact will be obvious when we come to treat of selection. Fourthly, pigeons have been watched and tended with the utmost care, and loved by many people. They have been domesticated for thousands of years in several quarters of the world. The earliest known record of pigeons is in the fifth Egyptian dynasty, about 3000 ., as was pointed out to me by Professor Lepsius; but Mr. Birch informs me that pigeons are given in a bill of fare in the previous dynasty. In the time of the Romans, as we hear from Pliny, immense prices were given for pigeons: 'Nay, they are come to this pass, that they can reckon up their pedigree and race.' Pigeons were much valued by Akber Khan in India, about the year 1600: never less than 20,000 pigeons were taken with the court. 'The monarchs of Iran and Turan sent him some very rare birds.' 'And,' continues the same courtly historian, 'his Majesty, by crossing the breeds, which method was never practised before, has improved them astonishingly.' About this same period, the Dutch were as eager about pigcons as were the old Romans.

"The paramount importance of these considerations, in explaining the immense amount of variation which pigeons have undergone, is obvious. We see how it is that the breeds so often have a someswhat monstrous character.

"It is also a most favourable circumstance for the production of distinct breeds, that male and female pigeons can be easily mated for life; and thus different breeds can be kept together in the same aviary."

The suecess of the fancier in perpetuating the different varieties of pigeons depends on the tendency in the young to reproduce the natural peculiarities of the parents. It is always to be remembered that variations occurring naturally are alone capable of being thus reproduccd. Any artificial alteration has no effect on the offspring, even when the same alteration is produced in many successive generations. Thus, in some tribes of North American Indians, the custom of flattening the fore part of the skull has been constantly practised, but no child is ever born with this peculiarity. Many generations of horses have had their tails docked in obedience to the dictates of an absurd fashion, yet a breed of dock-tailed horses has not been produced. Game cocks have had their combs and wattles cut off for at least fifty generations, nevertheless, the young birds are always produced with these appendages of the full size.

The perpetuation of variations artificially or accidentally produced would be an evil of enormous magnitude. Were every accidental loss in the parent to be reproduced in the offspring, no race of animals would be free from defects that would go on increasing, generation after gencration, and would ultimately result in the extinction of the species. If the loss of a limb was thus transmitled from father to son, the whole human race would, long ere this, have been a generation of maimed and helpless cripples.

On the other hand, any variation occurring naturally always has a tendency