27ty COLUMBA LIVIA. 



became tumid and sore, when, in consequence of advice from 

 a friend, I took a mouthful of barley and water, and introduced 

 the pigeon's bill, when the bird soon satisfied itself, flapping 

 its ^v'ings gently and uttering a low cry all the w^hile. It grew 

 up vigorously, shed the yellow down-tips of its feathers, and 

 began to fly about. Towards the middle of autumn it renewed 

 its plumage, and assumed the bright and beautiful tints of the 

 adult male. Whenever I escaped from the detested pages of 

 Virgil and Horace, the pigeon was sure to fly to me, and some- 

 times alighted on my head or shoulder, directing its bill to- 

 wards my mouth, and flapping its wangs. Nor did it ever fly 

 oW with the wild pigeons, which almost every day fed near 

 the house, although it had no companions of its own species. 

 At length some fatal whim induced it to make an excursion to 

 a village about a mile distant, when it alighted on the roof of 

 a hut, and the boys pelted it dead with stones. Long and true 

 was my sorrow for my lost companion, the remembrance of 

 which will probably continue as long as life. I have since 

 mourned the loss of a far dearer dove. They w^ere gentle and 

 lovely beings ; but while the one has been blended with the 

 elements, the other remains " hid with Christ in God,"' and for 

 it I " mourn not as those who have no hope." 



The domestic varieties of the Rock Dove are very numer- 

 ous. The most beautiful, in my estimation, is the most com- 

 mon, the blue, white-backed pigeon, which is in all respects 

 similar to the wild stock, only in general a good deal larger. 

 The first remarkable change is when the white of the back is 

 substituted by blue. Then there are dark-blue, purple, spotted 

 blue and purple, pale red, white, and variously coloured pigeons, 

 all without much change of form, and all therefore esteemed 

 vulgar. Some of the breeds are of great size, without much 

 diflerence of form, as the Roman and Maltese. Others exhibit 

 various distortions and disfigurations, which are highly esteem- 

 ed by pigeon-fanciers. Thus the Jacobine has a rufl:'of in- 

 curved feathers about the neck ; the Tumbler, a remarkable 

 increase in number of the tail-feathers, which are kept spread 

 like a fan ; the Turkish or Carrier pigeon has a kind of wat- 

 tles about the eyes and the base of the bill ; and the Cropper 



