nd have prepared skeletons of all. I have
received skins from Persia, and a large number from India and other
quarters of the {132} world.[275] Since my admission into two of the London
pigeon-clubs, I have received the kindest assistance from many of the most
eminent amateurs.[276]

The races of the Pigeon which can be distinguished, and which breed true,
are very numerous. MM. Boitard and Corbie[277] describe in detail 122
kinds; and I could add several European kinds not known to them. In India,
judging from the skins sent me, there are many breeds unknown here; and Sir
W. Elliot informs me that a collection imported by an Indian merchant into
Madras from Cairo and Constantinople included several kinds unknown in
India. I have no doubt that there exist considerably above 150 kinds which
breed true and have been separately named. But of these the far greater
number differ from each other only in unimportant characters. Such
differences will be here entirely passed over, and I shall confine myself
to the more important points of structure. That many important differences
exist we shall presently see. I have looked through the magnificent
collection of the Columbidae in the British Museum, and, with the exception
of a few forms (such as the Didunculus, Calaenas, Goura, &c), I do not
hesitate to {133} affirm that some domestic races of the rock-pigeon differ
fully as much from each other in external characters as do the most
distinct natural genera. We may look in vain through the 288 known
species[278] for a beak so small and conical as that of the short-faced
tumbler; for one so broad and short as that of the barb; for one so long,
straight, and narrow, with its enormous wattles, as that of the English
carrier; for an expanded upraised tail like that of the fantail; or for an
oesophagus like that of the pouter. I do not for a moment pretend that the
domestic races differ from each other in their whole organisation as much
as the more distinct natural genera. I refer only to external characters,
on which, however, it must be confessed that most genera of birds have been
founded. When, in a future chapter, we discuss the principle of selection
as followed by man, we shall clearly see why the differences between the
domestic races are almost always confined to external, or at least to
externally visible, characters.

Owing to the amount and gradations of difference between the several
breeds, I have found it indispensable