In like manner, the barnyard fowls have been developed by selective breeding. The Leghorns and Minorcas, with their beautiful combs and wattles, the Golden Spangled and the Silver Spangled Crested Hamburgs, with their crowning hoods, the noble Plymouth Rocks, with their barred bodies, the magnificent Light Brahmas and Buff Cochins, arrayed with wing-like feathery growths to their very toes, the game fowls of the various varieties—those sleek, trim birds that would rather fight than eat—and the little Bantams of every sort, proud and beautiful in their bearing—all these are the children of the rude jungle fowls whose male birds still shriek a welcome to the morning sun from the wilds of India and the Malay Islands. Likewise, the hundred and fifty varieties of our pigeons—the graceful Modena, the large Runt, the tall Carrier, the Trumpeter with his strange coo, his hooded head, his winged legs, the Frill-back with his feathers curling towards his head, the Pouter, with his tall, slender body, and throat inflated as though a feathered football were pinched between his beak and breast, the compact Fantail, leaning back with pride in his beautiful tail that rises above his head like a screen, the Tumbler, that from a lofty height tumbles with utter abandon through the air—all these pigeons, whatever their size, their form, their markings, their habits, have been developed during the last few centuries from the modest blue rock pigeons of the European coast (Fig. 47). [Illustration: FIG. 46.—DOGS. Reading from the top downwards: St. Bernard, Bloodhound, Greyhound, English Setter, Irish Spaniel, Dalmatian, Pug, Skye Terrier.] Such is the story that rounds the vast circumference of life. All life is one, and by the same means its varied ends have been attained. By breeding from those creatures whose qualifications enabled them to survive in their environment, Nature, without knowing why, selected the fittest to become the parents of the creatures that were to follow. Thus, of necessity, the life of the world, ever branching into an increasing diversity of species, gradually improved in form, function and intelligence. And with millions of ages in which to try every experiment, to test every detail, to destroy her failures and seek success along other lines, Nature was bound to reach our day with an array of living creatures of finer development than those that perished in the struggles of the vanished years. The laws in accordance with which the humbler creatures have been developed from still lower forms have presided over the evolution of man from the beast; and, never pausing in their action, these forces have slowly fashioned the glories of civilization from the dark crudity of savage thought. The story of man but continues in another form the story of life before man appeared. [Illustration: FIG. 47.—PIGEONS. Modena 10, Runt 19, Carrier 1, Trumpeter 4, Frill-back 37, Pouter 2, Fantail 6, Tumbler 15. Rock Doves in Centre.]