The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication Volume I Part 9

Owing to the amount and gradations of difference between the several breeds, I have found it indispensable in the following cla.s.sification to rank them under Groups, Races, and Sub-races; to which varieties and sub- varieties, all strictly inheriting their proper characters, must often be added. Even with the individuals of the same sub-variety, when long kept by different fanciers, different strains can sometimes be recognised. There can be no doubt that, if well-characterised forms of the several races had been found wild, all would have been ranked as distinct species, and several of them would certainly have been placed by ornithologists in distinct genera. A good cla.s.sification of the various domestic breeds is extremely difficult, owing to the manner in which many of the forms graduate into each other; but it is curious how exactly the same difficulties are encountered, and the same rules have to be followed, as in the cla.s.sification of any natural but difficult group of organic beings. An "artificial cla.s.sification" might be followed which would present fewer difficulties than a "natural cla.s.sification;" but then it would interrupt many plain affinities. Extreme forms can readily be defined; but intermediate and troublesome forms often destroy our definitions. Forms which may be called "aberrant" must sometimes be included within groups to which they do not accurately belong. Characters of all kinds must be used; but as with birds in a state of nature, those afforded by the beak are the best and most readily appreciated. It is not possible to weigh the importance of all the characters which have to be used so as to make the groups and sub-groups of equal value. Lastly, a group may contain only one race, and another and less distinctly defined group may contain several races and sub-races, and in this case it is difficult, as in the cla.s.sification of natural species, to avoid placing too high a value on the number of forms which a group may contain.

In my measurements I have never trusted to the eye; and when speaking of a part being large or small, I always refer to the wild rock-pigeon (Columba livia) as the standard of comparison. The measurements are given in decimals of an inch.

(5/5. As I so often refer to the size of the C. livia, or rock-pigeon, it may be convenient to give the mean between the measurements of two wild birds, kindly sent me by Dr. Edmondstone from the Shetland Islands.

LENGTH IN INCHES:

From feathered base of beak to end of tail: 14.25 From feathered base of beak to oil-gland: 9.5 From tip of beak to end of tail: 15.02 Of tail-feathers: 4.62 From tip to tip of wing: 26.75 Of folded wing: 9.25 Beak.--Length from tip of beak to feathered base: .77 Beak.--Thickness, measured vertically at distal end of nostrils: .23 Beak.--Breadth, measured at same place: .16 Feet.--From end of middle toe (without claw) to distal end of tibia: 2.77 Feet.--From end of middle toe to end of hind toe (without claws): 2.02

WEIGHT: 14 1/4 ounces.)

(FIGURE 17. THE ROCK PIGEON, or Columba livia. The parent-form of all domesticated Pigeons. (5/6. This drawing was made from a dead bird. The six following figures were drawn with great care by Mr. Luke Wells from living birds selected by Mr. Tegetmeier. It may be confidently a.s.serted that the characters of the six breeds which have been figured are not in the least exaggerated.))

DIAGRAM 1. DOMESTIC PIGEONS.

Columba livia or ROCK-PIGEON--

--GROUP I.--(SUB-GROUP (RACE) 1.)--German P.

--Lille P.-- --Dutch P.

--ENGLISH POUTER.

--GROUP II.--(SUB-GROUPS (RACES) 2, 3, 4.)--Kali-Par--Bussora-- --Mura.s.sa.

--Dragon--ENGLISH CARRIER.

--Bagadotten--Scanderoon--Pigeon Cygne--RUNT.

--TRONFO.

--BARB.

--GROUP III.--(SUB-GROUPS (RACES) 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.)-- --Java Fantail--FANTAIL --Turbit--AFRICAN OWL.

--Persian Tumbler--Lotan Tumbler--Common Tumbler--SHORT-FACED TUMBLER.

--INDIAN FRILL-BACK.

--JACOBIN.

--GROUP IV.--(SUB-GROUPS (RACES) 10, 11.)-- --TRUMPETER.

--LAUGHER.

--ENGLISH FRILL-BACK.

--NUN.

--SPOT.

--SWALLOW.

--DOVECOTE PIGEON.

I will now give a brief description of all the princ.i.p.al breeds. Diagram 1.

may aid the reader in learning their names and seeing their affinities. The rock-pigeon, or Columba livia (including under this name two or three closely-allied sub-species or geographical races, hereafter to be described), may be confidently viewed, as we shall see in the next chapter, as the common parent-form. The names in italics on the right-hand side of the page show us the most distinct breeds, or those which have undergone the greatest amount of modification. The lengths of the dotted lines rudely represent the degree of distinctness of each breed from the parent-stock, and the names placed under each other in the columns show the more or less closely connecting links. The distances of the dotted lines from each other approximately represent the amount of difference between the several breeds.

(FIGURE 18. ENGLISH POUTER.)

GROUP I.

This group includes a single race, that of the Pouters. If the most strongly marked sub-race be taken, namely, the Improved English Pouter, this is perhaps the most distinct of all domesticated pigeons.

RACE I. POUTER PIGEONS. (KROPFTAUBEN, GERMAN. GROSSES-GORGES, OR BOULANS, FRENCH.)

Oesophagus of great size, barely separated from the crop, often inflated.

Body and legs elongated. Beak of moderate dimensions.

[SUB-RACE 1/I.

The improved English Pouter, when its crop is fully inflated, presents a truly astonis.h.i.+ng appearance. The habit of slightly inflating the crop is common to all domestic pigeons, but is carried to an extreme in the Pouter.

The crop does not differ, except in size, from that of other pigeons; but is less plainly separated by an oblique constriction from the oesophagus.

The diameter of the upper part of the oesophagus is immense, even close up to the head. The beak in one bird which I possessed was almost completely buried when the oesophagus was fully expanded. The males, especially when excited, pout more than the females, and they glory in exercising this power. If a bird will not, to use the technical expression, "play," the fancier, as I have witnessed, by taking the beak into his mouth, blows him up like a balloon; and the bird, then puffed up with wind and pride, struts about, retaining his magnificent size as long as he can. Pouters often take flight with their crops inflated. After one of my birds had swallowed a good meal of peas and water, as he flew up in order to disgorge them and feed his nearly fledged young, I heard the peas rattling in his inflated crop as if in a bladder. When flying, they often strike the backs of their wings together, and thus make a clapping noise.

Pouters stand remarkably upright, and their bodies are thin and elongated.

In connexion with this form of body, the ribs are generally broader and the vertebrae more numerous than in other breeds. From their manner of standing their legs appear longer than they really are, though, in proportion with those of C. livia, the legs and feet are actually longer. The wings appear much elongated, but by measurement, in relation to the length of body, this is not the case. The beak likewise appears longer, but it is in fact a little shorter (about .O3 of an inch), proportionally with the size of the body, and relatively to the beak of the rock-pigeon. The Pouter, though not bulky, is a large bird; I measured one which was 34 1/2 inches from tip to tip of wing, and 19 inches from tip of beak to end of tail. In a wild rock- pigeon from the Shetland Islands the same measurements gave only 28 1/4 and 14 3/4. There are many sub-varieties of the Pouter of different colours, but these I pa.s.s over.

SUB-RACE 1/II. DUTCH POUTER.

This seems to be the parent-form of our improved English Pouters. I kept a pair, but I suspect that they were not pure birds. They are smaller than English pouters, and less well developed in all their characters.

Neumeister (5/7. 'Das Ganze der Taubenzucht' Weimar 1837 pl. 11 and 12.) says that the wings are crossed over the tail, and do not reach to its extremity.

SUB-RACE 1/III. THE LILLE POUTER.

I know this breed only from description. (5/8. Boitard and Corbie 'Les Pigeons' etc. page 177 pl. 6.) It approaches in general form the Dutch Pouter, but the inflated oesophagus a.s.sumes a spherical form, as if the pigeon had swallowed a large orange, which had stuck close under the beak.

This inflated ball is represented as rising to a level with the crown of the head. The middle toe alone is feathered. A variety of this sub-race, called the claquant, is described by MM. Boitard and Corbie; it pouts but little, and is characterised by the habit of violently hitting its wings together over its back,--a habit which the English Pouter has in a slight degree.

SUB-RACE 1/IV. COMMON GERMAN POUTER.

I know this bird only from the figures and description given by the accurate Neumeister, one of the few writers on pigeons who, as I have found, may always be trusted. This sub-race seems considerably different.

The upper part of the oesophagus is much less distended. The bird stands less upright. The feet are not feathered, and the legs and beak are shorter. In these respects there is an approach in form to the common rock- pigeon. The tail-feathers are very long, yet the tips of the closed wings extend beyond the end of the tail; and the length of the wings, from tip to tip, and of the body, is greater than in the English Pouter.]

(FIGURE 19. ENGLISH CARRIER.)

GROUP II.

This group includes three Races, namely, Carriers, Runts, and Barbs, which are manifestly allied to each other. Indeed, certain carriers and runts pa.s.s into each other by such insensible gradations that an arbitrary line has to be drawn between them. Carriers also graduate through foreign breeds into the rock-pigeon. Yet, if well-characterised Carriers and Barbs (see figures 19 and 20) had existed as wild species, no ornithologist would have placed them in the same genus with each other or with the rock-pigeon. This group may, as a general rule, be recognised by the beak being long, with the skin over the nostrils swollen and often carunculated or wattled, and with that round the eyes bare and likewise carunculated. The mouth is very wide, and the feet are large. Nevertheless the Barb, which must be cla.s.sed in this same group, has a very short beak, and some runts have very little bare skin round their eyes.

RACE II. CARRIERS. (TURKISCHE TAUBEN; PIGEONS TURCS, DRAGONS.)

Beak elongated, narrow, pointed; eyes surrounded by much naked, generally carunculated, skin; neck and body elongated.

[SUB-RACE 2/I. THE ENGLISH CARRIER.

[This is a fine bird, of large size, close feathered, generally dark- coloured, with an elongated neck. The beak is attenuated and of wonderful length: in one specimen it was 1.4 inch in length from the feathered base to the tip; therefore nearly twice as long as that of the rock-pigeon, which measured only .77. Whenever I compare proportionally any part in the carrier and rock-pigeon, I take the length of the body from the base of the beak to the end of the tail as the standard of comparison; and according to this standard, the beak in one Carrier was nearly half an inch longer than in the rock-pigeon. The upper mandible is often slightly arched. The tongue is very long. The development of the carunculated skin or wattle round the eyes, over the nostrils, and on the lower mandible, is prodigious. The eyelids, measured longitudinally, were in some specimens exactly twice as long as in the rock-pigeon. The external orifice or furrow of the nostrils was also twice as long. The open mouth in its widest part was in one case .75 of an inch in width, whereas in the rock-pigeon it is only about .4 of an inch. This great width of mouth is shown in the skeleton by the reflexed edges of the ramus of the lower jaw. The head is flat on the summit and narrow between the orbits. The feet are large and coa.r.s.e; the length, as measured from end of hind toe to end of middle toe (without the claws), was in two specimens 2.6 inches; and this, proportionally with the rock-pigeon, is an excess of nearly a quarter of an inch. One very fine Carrier measured 31 1/2 inches from tip to tip of wing. Birds of this sub-race are too valuable to be flown as carriers.]

SUB-RACE 2/II. DRAGONS; PERSIAN CARRIERS.

[The English Dragon differs from the improved English Carrier in being smaller in all its dimensions, and in having less wattle round the eyes and over the nostrils, and none on the lower mandible. Sir W. Elliot sent me from Madras a Bagdad Carrier (sometimes called khandesi), the name of which shows its Persian origin: it would be considered here a very poor Dragon; the body was of the size of the rock-pigeon, with the beak a little longer, namely, 1 inch from the tip to the feathered base. The skin round the eyes was only slightly wattled, whilst that over the nostrils was fairly wattled. The Hon. C. Murray, also, sent me two Carriers direct from Persia; these had nearly the same character as the Madras bird, being about as large as the rock-pigeon, but the beak in one specimen was as much as 1.15 in length; the skin over the nostrils was only moderately, and that round the eyes scarcely at all wattled.]

SUB-RACE 2/III. BAGADOTTEN-TAUBEN OF NEUMEISTER (PAVDOTTEN- OR HOCKER- TAUBEN).