360 FANCY PIGEONS. 



coloured, and all sliowing a cross of tlie Owl — a slight divi- 

 sion of tlie feathers on the breast. Some of them had the 

 breast feathers slightly turned, indicating the frill. They 

 were wild as newly- caught hawks, and strong enough to 

 carry before them a pane of window glass, as one of them 

 did when in my possession. After much care and caution I 

 found them to be hardy birds, breeders almost the year 

 round — indeed, I am never without some few young ones. 

 During the season, when early light, they take two flights 

 per day, the cocks and unoccupied hens at about 7 a.m., the 

 liens and unoccupied cocks about 1 p.m. The flock invariably 

 fly southward, and are away for about an hour and a half 

 each time. I have seen them fully ten miles south still hold- 

 ing in that direction. "When first noticed on their return 

 they are always at a very great height; but should it be 

 blowing hard (the weather seems of little consequence to them), 

 they often return from the northward, having, no doubt, 

 been carried to the east or west, beyond their home. Three 

 years passed, when a friend came on a visit from Ledbury, 

 Herefordshire. This friend saw my An twerps, and expressed 

 a wish for a pair or two to breed for table use. After his 

 leaving for home I caught three pairs, all bred in my loft 

 (Antwerp loft, for with them I have nothing else). They 

 were put into a box (not a basket or cage), and addressed to 

 a mutual friend in Manchester, as they could not reach 

 Ledbury in one day from Glasgow. They reached Man- 

 chester in the evening, were re-booked for Ledbury next 

 morning, and reached their destination that evening, but 

 until then were not taken out of the box in which I had 

 placed them. Before sending the birds away I pulled the 

 flight feathers out of the right wing of each bird, and my 

 instructions were : ' Keep them confined, with such a netting 

 as will let them see the locality, till they have each a nest 

 of young ones, and are sitting upon their second eggs.' 

 Those instructions were rigidly adhered to. One night the 



