A difficulty with respect to the power of selection will perhaps already have occurred to the reader, namely, what could have led fanciers first to attempt to make such singular breeds as pouters, fantails, carriers, &c.? But it is this very difficulty which the principle of unconscious selection removes. Undoubtedly no fancier ever did intentionally make such an attempt. All that we need suppose is that a variation occurred sufficiently marked to catch the discriminating eye of some ancient fancier, and then unconscious selection carried on for many generations, that is, the wish of succeeding fanciers to excel their rivals, would do the rest. In the case of the fantail we may suppose that the first progenitor of the breed had a tail only slightly erected, as may now be seen in certain runts,[360] with some increase in the number of the tail-feathers, as now occasionally occurs with nuns. In the case of the pouter we may suppose that some bird inflated its crop a little more than other pigeons, as is now the case in a slight degree with the oesophagus of the turbit. We do not in the least know the origin of the common tumbler, but we may suppose that a bird was born with some affection of the brain, leading it to make somersaults in the air; and the difficulty in this case is lessened, as we know that, before the year 1600, in India, pigeons remarkable for their diversified manner of flight were much valued, and by the order of the Emperor Akber Khan were sedulously trained and carefully matched.