ROCK DOVE. 19 



latest performances of the Homing Pigeon will, therefore, be 

 read with interest ; especially as they proceed from that 

 great authority, Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier, the originator of the 

 recent utilization of this variety by the Trinity House : — 



" The variation of the Rock Dove in a state of domestica- 

 tion is capable of being carried out to a very remarkable 

 degree by careful selection of brood-stock. Not only can 

 the colours of the original species be varied, or even their 

 arrangement reversed, but strange modifications can be per- 

 petuated ; such as the production of frills or hoods, and an 

 increase in the number of the tail-feathers, varying from the 

 normal twelve up to forty. Structural alterations are also 

 effected, as in the rounded head of the short-faced Tumbler, 

 or the elongated beak of the fancy Carrier. The latter 

 breed is frequently confounded with the Homing or Voya- 

 geur Pigeon, which is only altered from the wild original by 

 a larger cerebral development, greater size and muscular 

 power, and an extraordinary increase in the breadth of the 

 primary flight-feathers of the wing. 



" Careful training, and breeding from the best specimens, 

 have greatly increased the faculty that these Homing birds 

 have for returning to their lofts from long distances. The 

 system of beginning with a few miles, and increasing until 

 fifty and even a hundred miles are taken at a stage, causes 

 the loss of the weaker and the less intelligent birds, and the 

 perpetuation of the best of the race. The result has been 

 remarkable. Some thirty years since it was rarely the case 

 that in the Belgian pigeon-races of 300 miles, even a few 

 birds returned home on the day of their liberation, but now 

 it is unusual, in good weather, for any of the prizes in a 500 

 miles race, not to be won on the very same day that the 

 birds ai-e flown. Thus in the great Belgian national race of 

 the present year (1882), which took place from Morcenx, 

 south of Bordeaux, to Brussels, a distance of 510 miles, 

 1,674 birds were liberated at 4.12 a.m., the wind being 

 S.W., and the weather clear, the first bird reached home at 

 4.37 P.M. ; his speed having been about 1,300 yards per 

 minute. One hundred and fifty-five birds were back the 



