184 



JODENAL OF HOBTICULTOBB AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



[ March 11, 18f9. 



protectors. They are fed every day at two o'clock. A dinner- 

 bell iB rung for them ; and they are not allowed to be interfered 

 with. Any person found ill-treating a Pigeon is arrested. If 

 it be the first offence, he is fined ; if he he an old offender, he 

 is sent to prison. 



It is believed by the credulous that the Pigeons of Venice 

 are in some way connected with the prosperity of the city ; 

 that they fly round it three times every day in honour of the 

 Trinity; and that their being domicihd in the town is a sign 

 that it will not be swallowed up by the waves. When it is 

 high water they perch on the top of the tower. When the 

 Venetians are at wnr, or when there is any prospect of a change 

 of dynasty, they gather round the Lion of St. Mark, over the 

 entrance to the ca'hedral, and consult in a low voice about the 

 destinies of the city. Doubt these tacts if you like, but not in 

 Venice. What spider-s were to Robert Bruce, what creoodiles 

 are to certain wild tiibes in Africa, the Columbines or little 

 Pigeons are to the Venetians. 



The real story of their coming is this. On a certain Palm 

 Simday, in the middle ages, the priests of St. Mark determined 

 to give the people a treat. They collected a number of Pigeons, 

 tied small weij^hts to their wings, and set them flying over 

 the Piazza, with a view to their falling into the hands of 

 "needy and deserving persons." iStoncs, sticks, and knives 

 were thrown at the birds, and many birds were killed ; but 

 eome escaped, and concealed themselves in the crevices of the 

 cathedral. One took refuge under the gown of the Virgin Mary 

 (a statue so called), and another got entangled in the hands of 

 a clock, and bled to death. The sacredness of the place screened 

 the survivors from farther harm, and all thoughts of pursuing 

 them were abandoned. They became the pets of the city, and 

 after a few years were taken under the protection of the Doge. 

 By that time they had multiplied to such an extent as to 

 have become almost as numerous as the sparrows are in 

 London ; and so great were the love and veneration which 

 they excited in the breasts of the populace, that no man's 

 life was considered safe who insulted a Pigeon. Special laws 

 were made for them, called Pigeon Laws, and Venice ran 

 the risk at one time of being permanently called Columbia, 

 or the City of Doves. Finally, a pension was settled upon 

 them, and a daily dinner-bell was rung for their accommo- 

 dation. 



A onrious part of this affair is that the birds never forget 

 their dinner hour — never allow their excursions on the Lagunes 

 to interfere with it. Sometimes the bell ringa too soon, some- 

 times too late, but the birds are always there at the right time ; 

 and if the bell-ringing be omitted — as it sometimes has been 

 by way of experiment — they scream and flap their wings in a 

 peculiar manner. This may seem incredible, but the story 

 has been verified over and over again, both for the amusement 

 of visitors and the satisfaction of the authorities. It is a 

 pretty sight of a summer's day to watch these birds flying 

 about the Piazza to the sound of the bells, and finally alight- 

 ing under the window of the terrace, where their dinner is 

 thrown out to them in a golden shower of grain. Once npon a 

 time it was a young lady who performed this office ; now it is 

 a young man. The change is for the worse. 



The Pigeons of Venice are black and white (or grey), with 

 pink eyes and red feet. A benutiful green collaret surrounds 

 the throat ; the body is quite white under the wings. Some of 

 them have white tails, whiter than the snow of the Appenines, 

 with opal or topaz eyes, which change their tints a thousand 

 times a-day. It is of birds like these that mention is made in 

 eastern stories, birds that did duty as postmen, and carried 

 letters to and fro between ladies and gentlemen. Some say 

 the Pigeons of St. Mark are so rare a breed that none like 

 them are to be obtained for love or money out of the sea- 

 city ; but the vouchers are Venetians. The long and short 

 of the matter is that the Pigeons of St. Mark are a remnant 

 of the ancient glories of the city ; a living record of the days 

 when Venice was the mistress of the seas, the centre of 

 civilisation, the market-place and tribune of one-half of the 

 civilised world. To a Venetian these birds are messengers of 

 peace — tokens of pride and power, which will one day re-assert 

 themselves. 



Some of the Pigeons took part in the revolution of 1849 

 (flying between the Austrians and the Italians), and were shot 

 by mistake ; others were cooked for fo(>d, or eaten raw. But 

 it is the boast of the Venetians that Venice was true to her 

 Pigeons even in her hour of famine ; that their dinner-bell was 

 rung regularly; and that their dinner was supplied to them 

 wittiont stint, when hundreds were in want of the commonest 



necessaries of life, and were visited at the same time by fire, 

 famine, and pestilence. — (AH the Year Jtoiou!.) 



BREEDING CANARIES. 



[Tnn following renders answers to several correspondents.] 



" One swallow does not make a summer, neither will one or 

 two fine days. Better be late, very late, in putting your birds 

 together, than too early." These words, or others of a similar 

 import, I made use of last year in my Guide, and I have this 

 year already received intimation of the evils which result from 

 neglect of this advice. I confess that after the tedium of a 

 dreary winter, though enlivened now and then with the excite- 

 ment of an exhibition — when nest boxes and all the et-coetera 

 of the breeding-room have been long stored away, and the bnsy 

 lite of the breeding season has been succeeded by the dull quiet 

 of the moulting period ; when surplus stock has been disposed 

 of, and new blood imported; when the " last Canary Show of 

 the season" is over — the return of spring rousing all animated 

 nature from its long sleep, refreshed and invigorated with new 

 energies, has a somewhat similar eflcjot on the breeder as on 

 the bird. When the latter is seen carrying stuff about its cage, 

 the former may soon be seen carrying a whitewash brush, and 

 though upon reflection he thinks it is rather early, still he 

 consoles himself with, "Where's the harm in having things 

 put in order?" Prudent housewives will do well to defer the 

 spring cleaning till after this, and paterfamilias may expect to 

 be stopped on the stairs, cage in hand, to receive a lecture there 

 and then on the evils attendant on bird-keeping ; the sand, 

 bird seed, and dirt on the stair carpets, being strong evidence 

 for the plaintiff. 



Last year I put up my birds in the first week in March, mnoh 

 earlier than I ever did before, but then I had my handy little 

 gas stove in operation, and could maintain an equable tem- 

 perature. This year I have changed my room, having by 

 means of a small bribe induced materfamilias to give me 

 another, and as yet I have not fitted up my stove. Till within 

 the last few days the weather has been very open, but now we 

 are having frost with a little snow, and I shall defer pairing ae 

 long as the frost lasts. It may be that the fact of my having a 

 large twenty-pair cage in hand unwired, has something to do 

 with it, but I shall wait till towards the end of the month, and 

 I advise " A Scbsceibek" to do the same. 



I have never run a cock with two hens in the same compart- 

 ment. My plan has always been to introduce him to one of 

 them (the better of the two for choice), and when she has laid 

 her nest of eggs, to pass him through to the second. By the 

 time she has built and is sitting, the first hen will have 

 chipped, and the cock can be returned to assist in feeding, 

 leaving the other to attend to her duties alone. A correspon- 

 dent, however, an eminent breeder, who always takes a good 

 position at the Palace with his favourite Cinnamons, writes 

 me to say that he ran a cock with three hens in a large flight 

 cage with great success ; and one of our best breeders here put 

 two hens with one cock under similar circumstances, and I have 

 seen both hens as well as the cock feeding the young in the 

 same nest, and Brigham Young himself could not have de- 

 sired a more united happy family. If an opportunity present, 

 I shall not fail to adopt this plan in the present season, put- 

 ting them together simultaneously, as the hens will be less dis- 

 posed to quarrel than if introduced at different times. I do 

 not know that this method would do with a Linnet, but I Bee 

 no reason why he should not be a polygamiit, and have a 

 harem as well as a Canary. 



When my hens are breeding, I give canary, summer rape, 

 and linseed, mixed, and every day a little hard-boiled egg 

 chopped fine and mixed with crushed heu;pseed or brejid 

 crumbs, with plenty of green food, groundsel, chickweed, or 

 lettuce. When breeding, the egg and hempseed must be in- 

 creased, giving it twice or thrice a-day, but while the hen is 

 sitting I remove all stimulating food. Some breeders feed high 

 at this time, on the ground that since the hen eats but little, 

 that little should be of a nourishing description, and arguing, 

 with some show of reason, that it is inconsistent with common 

 sense to systematically feed a hen to an unusual degree of 

 bodily vigour, and then suddenly remove the stimulating diet 

 and substitute the plainest food for an interval of thirteen 

 days during which the bird is sitting, only to replace it as ab- 

 ruptly. Such sudden changes of food, it is contended, cannot 

 have a beneficial effect on the constitution. I gradually de- 

 crease the supply as the hen shows signs of wanting to lay, an4 



