6 FANCY PIGEONS. 



from wliich it appears tliat it remains very much the same 

 as it did in Atbar's time. 



In the Middle Ages. 



Ulyssis Aldrovandi, the naturalist, who began the publication 

 of his history in 1599, devotes considerable space to the pigeon, 

 and gives figures of some varieties, but they are so bad as to 

 be almost unrecognisable. 



Francis Willoughby's " Ornithology," edited by John Ray, was 

 published in London, in Latin, in 1676, and afterwards, in 

 English, in 1678. He is the first English writer who gives a 

 detailed list of fancy pigeons. He says he saw carriers in 

 the aviary belonging to the King (Charles II.), in St. James's 

 Park. He corresponded with Mr. Phillip Skippon (Cromwell's 

 General ?) on the subject of the barb, or Barbary pigeon, and 

 derived information about croppers, carriers, and jacobins, from 

 Mr. Cope, an embroiderer, living in Jewin Street. Skippon 

 and Cope are the earliest English fanciers on record, so far 

 as I have discovered. 



Recent History. 



John Moore, an apothecary in Abchurch-lane, London, pub- 

 lished, in 1735, an octavo volume of 60pp., entitled, " Colum- 

 barium; or, the Pigeon-House," which was the foundation of 

 all English works on the subject published in the eighteenth 

 century. Moore, who may be considered the father of the 

 pigeon fancy in this country, was proprietor of a vermifuge, 

 which is humorously referred to by Pope in some verses 

 addressed to him. He is also referred to in the same character 

 by Swift, in "A Letter from a Gentleman in the Country to 

 his Friend in Town." 



I have noticed some of the principal dealers in pigeons 

 advertising that they have supplied birds to her Majesty 

 Queen Victoria. Lady Bloomfield, in her recently-published 

 book, "Reminiscences of Court and Diplomatic Life," speaks 



