2 FANCY PIGEONS. 



/ 



mention made of " 258 pairs of pigeons and 5237 pigeons of 

 another kind." It may be inferred that the former were of 

 some special or choice description. 



The Annals of Rameses III., of the Twentieth Dynasty 

 (about 1200 B.C.). contained in the " Great Harris Papyrus," now 

 in the British Museum, detail his donations to the temples of 

 Thebes, Heliopolis, Memphis, and elsewhere. Plate 8, line 10, 

 says : " Its barns had fatted geese, its poultry yards had fowls 

 of heaven." The domestic fowl was then unknown in Europe 

 and Africa. The pigeon was called by the Egyptians the bird 

 or nestling of heaven. Again, on Plate 27, line 6 : " I made to 

 thee stables containing young oxen, apartments to bring up 

 fowls (pigeons, or birds of heaven), with geese and ducks." 



Reference by Grecian Authors. 



Homer (about 950 B.C.) refers sometimes to " silver " doves, 

 as in the line — 



Messe's towers for silver doves renowned, 



which may refer to albino or white pigeons, as found in 

 almost every colony of semi-wild ones. 



The carrier pigeon may have reached Greece from Egypt. 

 Anacreon (563-478 B.C.), in his ode to it, so beautifully 

 rendered by Thomas Moore, shows its early use there. 



Socrates (469-400 B.C.) seems to refer to pigeons in his 

 dialogue with Plato's brother Glaucon (Plato's "Republic," 

 Book Y., chap, viii.), when he says : 



" ' Tell me this, Glaucon — for in your house I see both sport- 

 ing dogs and a great number of well-bred birds — have you, by 

 Zeus, ever attended to their pairing and bringing forth 

 young ? ' 



" Glaucon.—' How ? ' 



" Socrates. — ' First of all, among these, though all be well- 

 bred, are not some of them far better than all the rest ? ' 



" Glaucon.—' They are.' 



