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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: that of the short-faced tumbler, or barb; for reversed feathers like those
of the jacobin; for a crop like that of the pouter; for tail-feathers like
those of the fantail. Hence it must be assumed not only that
half-civilized man succeeded in thoroughly domesticating several species,
but that he intentionally or by chance picked out extraordinarily abnormal
species; and further, that these very species have since all become extinct
or unknown. So many strange contingencies seem to me improbable in the
highest degree.
Some facts in regard to the colouring of pigeons well deserve
consideration. The rock-pigeon is of a slaty-blue, and has a white rump
(the Indian sub-species, C. intermedia of Strickland, having it bluish);
On the Origin of Species |
