Chapter XIII. 



o< THE RINGBEATER PIGEON. >o 



NDER the names of Smiter, Finnikin, and 

 Turner, our former writers on pigeons have 

 described varieties agreeing more or less with 

 the French Pigeon Tournant, and German 

 Ringschldger, or E-ingbeater. Willughby says 

 of Smiters: "These do not only shake their wings as they fly, 

 but also, flying round about in a ring, especially over their 

 females, clap them so strongly, that they make a greater 

 sound than two battledores, or other boards, struck one against 

 another, whence it comes to pass, that their quil-feathers are 

 almost always broken and shattered ; and sometimes so bad, 

 that they cannot fly." He describes the Turner merely as 

 " having a tuft hanging down backward from their head, 

 parted like a horse's mane ;" and the Finnikin, " like the pre- 

 cedent (the Turner), but less." 



Moore describes no Smiter, but his Finnikin "is in Make 

 and Shape very like a common Runt, and much about the 

 same Size. The crown of its head is turned much after the 

 manner of a snake's head; it is gravel-eyed, and has a tuft 

 of feathers on the hinder part of the crown, which runs down 



