The Creation Of A Strain Of Racing Pigeons

[Guest IB]

I’ve recently been loaned a book written a long time ago by Wing Commander WD Lea Raynor which amongst other subjects explores the origins of the racing pigeon. Most agree racing pigeons are descendants of the wild Blue Rock Dove, and it is from that bird that the modern racing pigeon inherited most of its characteristics. Bearing in mind the problems that beset present-day pigeon fanciers, the following extract from ‘The Creation of a Strain’ will be of particular interest to all:-

 

“But we are concerned only with the evolution with the modern racing or homing pigeon, as to which, since it is cultivated solely for its flying and homing ability, hardihood and stamina-all more or less invisible qualities-it follows that its outward appearance has not been intentionally modified by such breeders, except of course, by breeders of show specimens, to which reference will be made later.

 

For this reason, the homing pigeon could be expected to resemble, more closely than ‘fancy’ varieties, the original wild species from which they all descend. That this is so, is clearly seen from the photos and other data available concerning the Rock Dove and modern racing pigeons.

 

But what of the other wild species which, according to some ornithologists, have some place in the ancestry of the domestic varieties. First there is the Dove House pigeon – a strange name for a wild species. Though at first considered a separate species it has been long established as a variant of the Blue Rock Dove and therefore the same species. It is a blue chequer, a little larger than the Rock Dove, which is a blue bar, and shorter in face. Since they are the same species, their inclusion in the wild ancestry of the modern domestic pigeon would not be opposed.

 

As regards other species of aboriginal dove or pigeon mentioned in discussions, the comparative or complete infertility of their hybrids when mated experimentally with domestic pigeons renders it unlikely, to say the least, that they have any part in the ancestry of the domestic varieties.

 

Concerning one of the species, the book’s writer stumbled upon first hand information which may perhaps throw more light than the results of isolated aviary experiments. Whilst in Kenya organising wartime pigeon services I visited Dr Raymond at his lonely farm on the lower slopes of Mt Kenya, near Nanuka, (altitude 9,000 feet). He was a Hunter & Zoologist, hunting specimens to supply zoos. The reason for my visit was the information that he kept a team of racing pigeons.

 

And so he did but not in the conventional way, or purpose. He explained that some 20 years ago, a relative in England died leaving him a whole team of extremely well bred and successful long distance racing pigeons which were sent out to him. They were housed in a rough sort of loft-timber cladding at back and ends, wire netted front, earth floor and thatched roof. They were exercised daily and fed in by hand. They were never handled or trained at all. He had another use for them to which we will refer later.

 

In the same rough loft were housed an almost equal number of the wild African pigeon which he had successfully domesticated to the extent of making their home and nests in the pigeon loft and coming in to feed, though they were very shy and wild – as were the homers, by our standards. When I saw these African pigeons at Nanuki I was struck by their beauty, I could only describe them as purple chequers in shape and head very similat to the Rock Dove but a little bigger-though not as big as the homers which shared their loft. As to the homers, although they had been allowed to breed freely, without any control of matings whatever for about 20 years since the arrival of the original team from England, their appearance would have done credit to any racing loft. There was no outward sign of reversion to the common ‘Rock’ type. It is of interest too, that whilst the originals though may were blues also included various colours, red chq, blu chq etc., the resultant colony after 20 years of semi-wild life and uncontrolled breeding were all blues; ordinary clear cut blue bars, and very attractive they looked too, to a racing pigeon fanciers eye. The racers and the wild African pigeons shared the same loft for 20 years, were exercised and fed at the same times and although they shared the same house and routine, they did not mix freely but tended to keep to their own areas of their joint loft, tended to fly apart at exercise and in twenty years together there had not been one cross-mating between the two groups-at least none had been observed and certainly no hybrid youngster had been produced and survived. From this Rayner concluded that the African pigeon was a different species and was not an ancestor of the racing pigeon.

 

The use to which Dr Raymond put his racing pigeons will horrify lovers of racing pigeons. He was a Hunter by profession and the study of wild life a passion. The tactics of hunting animals and birds was of particular interest. There are hawks and falcons of various kinds in plenty around Mt Kenya. By providing a supply of the quarry at his own doorstep Dr Raymond was able to observe the attacks of various types of hawk at leisure by simply turning out his pigeons when the particular hawk to be observed came over.

 

At first, it was a piece of cake for the falcon as regards the homer, but much less so in respect of the African native pigeon. There came a time when it seemed it would be necessary to exercise some caution lest the homers were eliminated altogether, but that stage was never quite reached and before long the normal breeding increase was more than sufficient to replace losses. Kills by hawk or falcon became less frequent until, at the time of my visit, it was a very rare occurrence indeed for any hawk or falcon to make a kill. By then, about 20 years after their introduction tp their new country-the English homers had become more elusive (from the hawk’s viewpoint) than the native African pigeon living in precisely the same environment, and had become more numerous than the native African pigeons and now occupied the lion’s share of the available accommodation, and in the process had become all uniformly blues so much of a type as to be indistinguishable one from another. This uniformity was to be expected as the natural outcome of prolonged and unrestricted inbreeding from the survivors of the survivors of the survivors of the peculiar environment and ‘trial by ordeal’ to which they were subjected year by year.

 

As to the resultant uniform colour: was it a return to the original blue of the Rock Dove?. Was it due to a fluke of the early survivors of hawk attacks being mainly blues? Or was it due to the added vulnerability of the lighter coloured reds and mealies to hawk attack by reason of their conspicuousness in flight? Possibly a combination of all three, but as to the first alternative their was no other indication of reversion to the comparatively poor and mean appearance of the wild Rock Dove. They were typical of the modern racing pigeon.

 

I was curious to find out whether in the process of adapting to this strange and strenuously selective environment they had in the course of perhaps ten generations lost that homing ability which was the chief criterion upon which breeders of very many generations of their ancestors had made their breeding selections. Dr Raymond on my request sent a number of his blue homers without any prior training –none of them ever having been in a basket before-to the RAF loft at East Leigh, Nairobi, 90 miles away from and 3000 feet lower than Nanuki, where they were marked and liberated. The majority succeeded in homing though most spent one or more nights out. Their performance as a team was not much worse, if at all, to what one might expect from a team of untrained youngsters from a good racing loft, if subject to a comparable test. I found that result as surprising as it was interesting Twenty years-or say an average of 10 generations-of selection by contests with birds of prey and of complete neglect of selection by homing tests, had by no means eliminated homing ability or even greatly impaired it, whilst evolving a strain also capable of surviving and flourishing in a hawk and falcon infested country.

 

It is at least probable that whilst selection by falcon was evolving and fixing in the family qualities necessary for survival in that respect, the intense inbreeding rendered unavoidable by the family’s isolation from others of their species for 20 years, had served to preserve the character of the homing ability almost unimpaired, although never exercised.

 

This incident has been dealt with in some detail for the striking evidence it affords to the immense adaptability of the Rock Dove and its most hardy descendant-the racing pigeon.â€

[geordie1234]

Reading this book at the moment

[OLDYELLOW]

perhaps we should be crossing them with Catalonian tumblers and crossing them back out

[Delboy]

Good read. Hopefully a falcon proof racing pigeon will evolve in time but I don't think the sport has long enough for this to happen.

[walterboswell59]

so why is it the falcon is a prolific killer of rock doves on our coasts and the hawks are in to them every day why have they not learned to avoid them load of rubbish imo hawks learn to or they dont survive

[Guest chad3646]

so why is it the falcon is a prolific killer of rock doves on our coasts and the hawks are in to them every day why have they not learned to avoid them load of rubbish imo hawks learn to or they dont survive

 

 

correct walter the peregrine falcon and the r s p b are here to stay

[walterboswell59]

correct walter the peregrine falcon and the r s p b are here to stay

to right chad

[moscow master]

correct walter the peregrine falcon and the r s p b are here to stay

Only because doo men won't grow a set we canny aw get put in the cloaker boax fk the rspb

[We man]

Only because doo men won't grow a set we canny aw get put in the cloaker boax fk the rspb

What does that all mean?.

[Guest chad3646]

a think that means the jail heis from dervel lol

[walterboswell59]

Only because doo men won't grow a set we canny aw get put in the cloaker boax fk the rspb

ill back ye up till nose bleeds m8 lol am wi you on that one

[eastcoaster]

Same here lock me up if they wish but I WILL PROTECT MY PIGEONS .

[walterboswell59]

and we should all help pay the fines of the guys thats do thats a fund i would give to gladly lol

[Guest TAMMY_1]

I’ve recently been loaned a book written a long time ago by Wing Commander WD Lea Raynor which amongst other subjects explores the origins of the racing pigeon. Most agree racing pigeons are descendants of the wild Blue Rock Dove, and it is from that bird that the modern racing pigeon inherited most of its characteristics. Bearing in mind the problems that beset present-day pigeon fanciers, the following extract from ‘The Creation of a Strain’ will be of particular interest to all:-

 

“But we are concerned only with the evolution with the modern racing or homing pigeon, as to which, since it is cultivated solely for its flying and homing ability, hardihood and stamina-all more or less invisible qualities-it follows that its outward appearance has not been intentionally modified by such breeders, except of course, by breeders of show specimens, to which reference will be made later.

 

For this reason, the homing pigeon could be expected to resemble, more closely than ‘fancy’ varieties, the original wild species from which they all descend. That this is so, is clearly seen from the photos and other data available concerning the Rock Dove and modern racing pigeons.

 

But what of the other wild species which, according to some ornithologists, have some place in the ancestry of the domestic varieties. First there is the Dove House pigeon – a strange name for a wild species. Though at first considered a separate species it has been long established as a variant of the Blue Rock Dove and therefore the same species. It is a blue chequer, a little larger than the Rock Dove, which is a blue bar, and shorter in face. Since they are the same species, their inclusion in the wild ancestry of the modern domestic pigeon would not be opposed.

 

As regards other species of aboriginal dove or pigeon mentioned in discussions, the comparative or complete infertility of their hybrids when mated experimentally with domestic pigeons renders it unlikely, to say the least, that they have any part in the ancestry of the domestic varieties.

 

Concerning one of the species, the book’s writer stumbled upon first hand information which may perhaps throw more light than the results of isolated aviary experiments. Whilst in Kenya organising wartime pigeon services I visited Dr Raymond at his lonely farm on the lower slopes of Mt Kenya, near Nanuka, (altitude 9,000 feet). He was a Hunter & Zoologist, hunting specimens to supply zoos. The reason for my visit was the information that he kept a team of racing pigeons.

 

And so he did but not in the conventional way, or purpose. He explained that some 20 years ago, a relative in England died leaving him a whole team of extremely well bred and successful long distance racing pigeons which were sent out to him. They were housed in a rough sort of loft-timber cladding at back and ends, wire netted front, earth floor and thatched roof. They were exercised daily and fed in by hand. They were never handled or trained at all. He had another use for them to which we will refer later.

 

In the same rough loft were housed an almost equal number of the wild African pigeon which he had successfully domesticated to the extent of making their home and nests in the pigeon loft and coming in to feed, though they were very shy and wild – as were the homers, by our standards. When I saw these African pigeons at Nanuki I was struck by their beauty, I could only describe them as purple chequers in shape and head very similat to the Rock Dove but a little bigger-though not as big as the homers which shared their loft. As to the homers, although they had been allowed to breed freely, without any control of matings whatever for about 20 years since the arrival of the original team from England, their appearance would have done credit to any racing loft. There was no outward sign of reversion to the common ‘Rock’ type. It is of interest too, that whilst the originals though may were blues also included various colours, red chq, blu chq etc., the resultant colony after 20 years of semi-wild life and uncontrolled breeding were all blues; ordinary clear cut blue bars, and very attractive they looked too, to a racing pigeon fanciers eye. The racers and the wild African pigeons shared the same loft for 20 years, were exercised and fed at the same times and although they shared the same house and routine, they did not mix freely but tended to keep to their own areas of their joint loft, tended to fly apart at exercise and in twenty years together there had not been one cross-mating between the two groups-at least none had been observed and certainly no hybrid youngster had been produced and survived. From this Rayner concluded that the African pigeon was a different species and was not an ancestor of the racing pigeon.

 

The use to which Dr Raymond put his racing pigeons will horrify lovers of racing pigeons. He was a Hunter by profession and the study of wild life a passion. The tactics of hunting animals and birds was of particular interest. There are hawks and falcons of various kinds in plenty around Mt Kenya. By providing a supply of the quarry at his own doorstep Dr Raymond was able to observe the attacks of various types of hawk at leisure by simply turning out his pigeons when the particular hawk to be observed came over.

 

At first, it was a piece of cake for the falcon as regards the homer, but much less so in respect of the African native pigeon. There came a time when it seemed it would be necessary to exercise some caution lest the homers were eliminated altogether, but that stage was never quite reached and before long the normal breeding increase was more than sufficient to replace losses. Kills by hawk or falcon became less frequent until, at the time of my visit, it was a very rare occurrence indeed for any hawk or falcon to make a kill. By then, about 20 years after their introduction tp their new country-the English homers had become more elusive (from the hawk’s viewpoint) than the native African pigeon living in precisely the same environment, and had become more numerous than the native African pigeons and now occupied the lion’s share of the available accommodation, and in the process had become all uniformly blues so much of a type as to be indistinguishable one from another. This uniformity was to be expected as the natural outcome of prolonged and unrestricted inbreeding from the survivors of the survivors of the survivors of the peculiar environment and ‘trial by ordeal’ to which they were subjected year by year.

 

As to the resultant uniform colour: was it a return to the original blue of the Rock Dove?. Was it due to a fluke of the early survivors of hawk attacks being mainly blues? Or was it due to the added vulnerability of the lighter coloured reds and mealies to hawk attack by reason of their conspicuousness in flight? Possibly a combination of all three, but as to the first alternative their was no other indication of reversion to the comparatively poor and mean appearance of the wild Rock Dove. They were typical of the modern racing pigeon.

 

I was curious to find out whether in the process of adapting to this strange and strenuously selective environment they had in the course of perhaps ten generations lost that homing ability which was the chief criterion upon which breeders of very many generations of their ancestors had made their breeding selections. Dr Raymond on my request sent a number of his blue homers without any prior training –none of them ever having been in a basket before-to the RAF loft at East Leigh, Nairobi, 90 miles away from and 3000 feet lower than Nanuki, where they were marked and liberated. The majority succeeded in homing though most spent one or more nights out. Their performance as a team was not much worse, if at all, to what one might expect from a team of untrained youngsters from a good racing loft, if subject to a comparable test. I found that result as surprising as it was interesting Twenty years-or say an average of 10 generations-of selection by contests with birds of prey and of complete neglect of selection by homing tests, had by no means eliminated homing ability or even greatly impaired it, whilst evolving a strain also capable of surviving and flourishing in a hawk and falcon infested country.

 

It is at least probable that whilst selection by falcon was evolving and fixing in the family qualities necessary for survival in that respect, the intense inbreeding rendered unavoidable by the family’s isolation from others of their species for 20 years, had served to preserve the character of the homing ability almost unimpaired, although never exercised.

 

This incident has been dealt with in some detail for the striking evidence it affords to the immense adaptability of the Rock Dove and its most hardy descendant-the racing pigeon.â€

 

read this for the first time and was quite interesting.

[paddymac]

and we should all help pay the fines of the guys thats do thats a fund i would give to gladly lol

We support a lot of charities through various charity sales and fund raisers but its time we looked after ourselves for a change. We should look at the Blackpool show and donate all funds from that weekend into the safeguard of our pigeons.