Fig. 189. Blue-barred Homer[16]
[16] Photograph from Elmer E. Rice, Boston, Massachusetts.
Improved varieties. Common pigeons are much alike the world over, and have changed little from the wild race, but in many different parts of the Old World the making of improved varieties began thousands of years ago, and in some places peculiar types were developed which were little known elsewhere until modern times. The varieties of the pigeon are so numerous that it is practically impossible to make a complete list of them. At the large shows in this country, classes are made for more than one hundred fifty named varieties, in about forty breeds. In many of these breeds there are eight or ten principal color varieties, and an indefinite number of less popular varieties, specimens of which compete in a miscellaneous competition in what is called the "any other variety class." There are probably nearly three hundred varieties of pigeons bred in America and England. On the continent of Europe the number is very much greater. The Triganica pigeon has one hundred fifty-two color varieties, and it is said that another variety in Germany, not known in England and America, has one hundred thirty-eight color varieties. Where varieties are so numerous, many of the color differences are necessarily slight, and only those who know them well can readily distinguish the different varieties at sight; others are bewildered when they attempt to do so. In this chapter only the most pronounced color varieties and the breeds of most interest to beginners will be described, but some of the most interesting of the others will be mentioned, to illustrate the range of the improved types developed by fanciers.
Fig. 190. White Hen Pigeons. (Photograph from Elmer E. Rice, Boston, Massachusetts)
Fig. 191. Young Jacobin Pigeons. (Photograph from E. R. B. Chapman, Stoneham, Massachusetts)
The Carrier Pigeon. The homing instinct—that is, the faculty of finding the way home after wandering or being taken away from it—is found in animals of all kinds. In some kinds of animals it is much more highly developed than in others, and some animals of each kind have more of it than is usual with their species. It is well known that migratory birds usually return to the same localities season after season, and that certain pairs often return to the same vicinity year after year and build their nests in the same places. When this instinct is highly developed in a wild bird, its habit of returning to the same nest is of great interest to those who observe it, but it has no particular value. In a domestic bird the homing instinct or habit is of service because the owner of a bird relies upon it to make the bird return always to the place which he has provided for it, instead of taking shelter elsewhere or remaining where nocturnal enemies will find it an easy prey. In the domestic land birds the instinct has no further use than this, but in pigeons which, while thoroughly domesticated, retain full power of flight, the development of the homing faculty makes it possible to use them as a means of communication when it is necessary to transmit short letters with great dispatch.