Hay 8, 18£e. ] 



JOUBNAli OP HOBTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



355 



let it have its full liberty on grass land. There it finds 

 medicine prepared by nature, better than any human help 

 can procure." — F. B. 



NOTES ON PIGEONS.— No. 4. 



FORMER ENGLISH WRITERS ON THE SUBJECT. 

 DANIEL GIBTON. 



Following " The Treatise of a.d. 176.5," came the stiU better 

 known "New and Complete Pigeon Fancyer, by Mr. Daniel 

 ^jrirton, of the county of Bucks." This gentleman had a greater 

 love for a lengthy title-page than even the author of " The 

 Treatise," and he had in addition a pleasing self-complacency 

 in regard to his literary labours. He thought highly of his 

 work ; this shows that he enjoyed his authorship — as he rounded 

 his sentences he was pleased with them. He says in his title- 

 page (and title-pages are usually, like prefaces, the part of a 

 work last written), that his book is "An useful, instructive, 

 and sure guide to Pigcon-fancyers in every sphere of life, com- 

 prehending all that is necessary to be known in the whole fancy 

 of Pigeons." He tells us in his preface, that " the most in- 

 defatigable pains have been bestowed to make this treatise 

 equally beneficial and curious !" and that " without flattery or 

 deception he offers to the public the best, the cheapest, and 

 most useful work on the subject ever yet published in the 

 English language." " A Daniel had indeed come to judgment," 

 in his own opinion without doubt, and I am not sure but that 

 he was right, although he sliould not liave praised himself, as 

 our copy-slips told us at school. Self-complacent Daniel, in 

 the title-page, in the preface, and in the body of the work, still 

 praising yourself for looking back upon the part finished ! 

 Daniel says, "Having presented my readers with a copious, 

 useful, and entertaining natural history of the Pigeon." Com- 

 fortable-minded, self-congratulating Daniel ! sitting under the 

 Beeches of Buckinghamshire, feeling certain that on the Pigeon 

 subject you had done your duty. 



I have said that Daniel Girton's book followed " The 

 Treatise," and soon after I am pretty sure, but how soon I 

 am, alas ! unable to state. I have what I think is a copy of 

 the first edition. The spelling is old, the word fancier spelled 

 thus, " fanO)/er." The type is poor, and the paper very coarse ; 

 indeed, more impure paper to print on can scarcely be seen 

 anywhere. At the bottom of the title-page I read, "London: 

 Printed for Alex. Hogg, No. 16, Paternoster Kow," but date I 

 find none. My copj- has been closely bound, and a portion 

 of the bottom of the title-page was cut off in the binding. 

 Under the words just quoted I can trace the upper parts of 

 some figures, or letters, but there is not sufficient left for 

 me to be able to make them out. If they are a date, perhaps 

 some one possessing a first edition will iindly furnish me 

 with it. 



Guton's book has, I fancy, found far more readers than 

 either " The Columbarium," or " The Treatise." The work 

 has been printed again and again ; five-and-twenty — no, eight- 

 and- twenty-years ago (how time flies !), I had a copy lent to 

 me then just bought new. Soon afterwards I saw another, 

 and in 1842 I bought a new copy in Bristol. Tliey were in 

 paper cases, and exactly alike, and Uke the one now lying 

 before me. Self-complacent Daniel was scarcely just to other 

 people. Unlike the nameless author of " The Treatise," he 

 does not say his work was " compiled," but he calls it " new." 

 Oh, Daniel ! this was not quite right. Even when he speaks 

 of his book being " embellished with a set of engravings, 

 elegantly executed from drawings accurately taken from life," 

 if he implies that these were done for him he is hardly correct, 

 for with simply the frontispiece of skinny cat and suppli- 

 cating mouse notoriety excepted, and the over-gay Mottle, we 

 have merely the old cuts of " The Treatise." The pictures in 

 Girton are printed altogether as a frontispiece to the work, 

 opening out like a map in a school geography. Here we have 

 again the dumpy Powter, the ungraceful Fantail, the Almond 

 over-coarse, the inelegant Carrier, the charming Jacobin, and 

 the Trumpeter, &c., all feather for feather like those in " The 

 Treatise." Then when we come to the matter, especially the 

 descriptions of the varieties, we have much of " The Colum- 

 barium" and "Treatise" over again, with the sentences a 

 little alters d or their order changed. 



Girton's " Fancyer " is closely printed, and contains 140 

 pages, and appears to have been well known by even those 

 who -were not fanciers. Thus Southey in that curiosity of 

 itferature, " The Doctor," mention's, if my memory does not 



deceive me, this very book of Girton's, devoting a whole chapter 

 to it. 



Although not wholly an original work, yet, I think, there 

 are many good reasons to show that the fancy were wise in 

 accepting it as the standard book on the subject during many 

 years. It was portable, cheap doubtless, and better arranged 

 and more complete than either " The Columbarium " or " The 

 Treatise." Girton is the first writer on fancy Pigeons who 

 gives U3 the natural history of Pigeons generally. He writes 

 of the Stock Dove, the wild Pigeon, and the Turtle Dove, thus 

 being naturalist and ornithologist as well as fancier, and so 

 commending his book to lovers of birds. He writes, too, 

 pleasantly enough. Then he speaks of the Dove-house Pigeon 

 and its habits, and gives us an anecdote of a farmer who com- 

 plained to a gentleman of the injury done in his fields by that 

 gentleman's Pigeons, and getting the reply — " When you see 

 them trespassing pound them." Upon which the farmer 

 steeped some peas in an infusion of cocculus indicus, which 

 peas the Pigeons ate, and soon lay lifeless on the field. The 

 farmer picked them up, put them into an empty bam, and gave 

 the gentleman notice that he had taken his advice and pounded 

 the Pigeons. This first chapter of Girton especially is plea- 

 sant reading. Then follow full directions for keeping Pigeons 

 for profit, building their cote, stocking it, laws relating to 

 Pigeons, and methods of preventing them leaving their home ; 

 all this, including forty-eight pages of useful matter not in 

 either of the former books, and though not meant for fanciers, 

 yet very instructive, and almost every one begins by keeping 

 common birds, and after a while grows into a fancier. 



These useful pages having been given, Girton remarks, 

 page 48 — " Having now given full and plain directions for the 

 choice and management of those Pigeons that are most ad- 

 vantageous for country people, or others who breed them for 

 the market, we shall now turn our thoughts to gratify the taste 

 of breeders who delight in the fancy birds." Girton also in- 

 troduces to our notice two varieties not before mentioned, the 

 Smiter and the Chinese Pigeon. In describing others he not 

 unfrequeutly gives us additional matter. Indeed, Moore was^.'^ 

 improved upon by the author of " The Treatise," and Girton '* 

 improved further. If we cannot quite grant to Girton that 

 his bonk is " new," yet we willingly allow that it was more 

 " complete" than its predecessors. Some may say concerning 

 these three old books, Moore was an originator, the writer of 

 " The Treatise" an improver, Girton a completer, he producing 

 a compendium which was for many years the book for Pigeon 

 fanciers. Some years ago I was in the habit of buying every 

 book on Pigeons that I saw advertised. Many times did I 

 foolishly spend my money ; some smart handbook arrived, at 

 the best it was old Daniel Girton over again, much curtailed 

 indeed ; or it was evidently compiled by some one who had 

 never kept Pigeons, and with pictures by those who were not 

 fanciers. Buy and burn— this was my plan. Then those ex- = 

 cellent books for boys containing a description of all the amuse- ^'j 

 ments suited for youth. In these works there were usually a '| 

 few pages devoted to Pigeons ; but if old Girton was not followed ' ■ 

 as he was m "The Boy's Own Book," a dearly-loved com-"^ 

 panion of mine in my school days, the information was meagre' '" 

 and valueless. 



I ))ave now finished with the writers on this subject of the '' 

 eighteenth century, and shall next proceed to those of the 

 present one. — "Wiltshibe Rectob. 



DRAGON PIGEONS. 



Mb. Ludlow says he was induced in the first place to pro- 

 mote discussion upon the respective qualities of the two sorts 

 of Dragon under notice— viz., those with the blue rump and 

 those w°ith the white rump, so that your readers might judge ' 

 whether or not it was follv for me to exclaim against the latter , 

 without reason or argument. Now, I contend that there is no ^ 

 room for argument as to the relative properties of the two, , 

 simply because the one is cleariy right and the other egregiously 

 wrong- the one worthy the attention and admiration of the ^ 

 fancier, the other only fit to be consigned to the shop of tha ^ 

 poultei-er. , j 



The superior colour which Mr. Ludlow says the white-rnmped 

 birds possess— namely, the light blue, is not at all in favour. _^ 

 of the Dragon, which is, or should be, of a totally different ^ 

 blue to the Owl or Turbit. Moreover, when the hght blue iS,,, 

 found it is almost invariably accompanied by a white beak, , 

 equally as objectionable and worthless as the white rump. 



