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Description
I crossed some white fantails, which breed very true, with some black barbs – and it so happens that blue varieties of barbs are so rare that I never heard of an instance in England; and the mongrels were black, brown, and mottled. I also crossed a barb with a spot, which is a white bird with a red tail, and red spot on the forehead, and which notoriously breed very true; the mongrels were dusky and mottled. I then crossed one of the mongrel barb-fantails, with a mongrel barb-spot, and they produced a bird of as beautiful a blue colour, with the white loins, double black wing-bar, and barred and white-edged tail-feathers, as any wild rock-pigeon! We can understand these facts, on the well-known principle of reversion to ancestral characters, if all the domestic breeds are descended from the rock-pigeon.
- Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species.

This is one of the examples given by Darwin as to how many different breeds, and therefore also many different species could possibly originate in the same.

It should also be noted that preceding this, is page upon page of descriptions of different domestic pigeon breeds. I decided to spare the reader from that, even though it provides some insight into Darwin’s experiment.

I have no idea why he describes the rock pigeon, Columba livia, commonly known as “the wild pigeon”, or just “the pigeon”, as blue. It is not. I have checked, and double checked that I haven’t in some way misunderstood of which bird he is speaking, but no. A google search after the “blue rock pigeon” will land you with the same greyish bird, with the emerald/purple details around its neck.

I have asked myself if that is the blue part, but since neither of said colours are really blue, it remains a mystery.

One could of course ask oneself if the colours may have changed since Darwins time, but that would be an instance of exceptionally fast evolution, and since the colours of today are iridescent, that is, they change according to the angle of which one is viewing them, I find that to be someone unlikely.

Description
I crossed some white fantails, which breed very true, with some black barbs – and it so happens that blue varieties of barbs are so rare that I never heard of an instance in England; and the mongrels were black, brown, and mottled. I also crossed a barb with a spot, which is a white bird with a red tail, and red spot on the forehead, and which notoriously breed very true; the mongrels were dusky and mottled. I then crossed one of the mongrel barb-fantails, with a mongrel barb-spot, and they produced a bird of as beautiful a blue colour, with the white loins, double black wing-bar, and barred and white-edged tail-feathers, as any wild rock-pigeon! We can understand these facts, on the well-known principle of reversion to ancestral characters, if all the domestic breeds are descended from the rock-pigeon.
- Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species.

This is one of the examples given by Darwin as to how many different breeds, and therefore also many different species could possibly originate in the same.

It should also be noted that preceding this, is page upon page of descriptions of different domestic pigeon breeds. I decided to spare the reader from that, even though it provides some insight into Darwin’s experiment.

I have no idea why he describes the rock pigeon, Columba livia, commonly known as “the wild pigeon”, or just “the pigeon”, as blue. It is not. I have checked, and double checked that I haven’t in some way misunderstood of which bird he is speaking, but no. A google search after the “blue rock pigeon” will land you with the same greyish bird, with the emerald/purple details around its neck.

I have asked myself if that is the blue part, but since neither of said colours are really blue, it remains a mystery.

One could of course ask oneself if the colours may have changed since Darwins time, but that would be an instance of exceptionally fast evolution, and since the colours of today are iridescent, that is, they change according to the angle of which one is viewing them, I find that to be someone unlikely.