383 PIGEON LITERATURE. 



references to them. Several varieties of domestic pigeons, 

 including some malformed ones, are figured in liis engravings. 

 The Jacobin and Frizzled breeds are recognisable; also a bird 

 having a resemblance to the Leghorn Runt as portrayed in 

 the London Treatise on Pigeons of 1765. 



Willughby's "Ornithology." London: 1676 and 1678. Folio. 



Francis Willughby (1635-1672), according to John Ray 

 (1628-1704), who edited the "Ornithology," was a man of 

 great ability, who, before his death at the age of thirty- 

 seven, had travelled over a great part of the Continent in 

 pursuit of knowledge connected with natural history. Ray 

 wi'ites as follows : " Of his skill in Natural Philosophy, 

 chiefly the History of Animals, I shall say no more at present, 

 but that it hath not yet been my hap to meet with any man, 

 either in England or beyond Seas, of so general and compre- 

 hensive knowledge therein." The first description of fancy 

 pigeons published in England, so far as I am aware, is by 

 Willughby, whose book was first published, in 1676, in Latin, 

 and then, in 1678, in English. At pages 181, 182 of the 

 latter edition is an interesting account, so far as it goes, of 

 seventeen varieties of tame pigeons, much of which I have 

 already referred to in the preceding pages. The figures he 

 gives on Plates XXXIII. and XXXIY. are partly copied 

 from Aldrovandi and partly original; but it is impossible to 

 believe that his plates of the Pouter, Carrier, Jacobin, and 

 Fantail, represent the best birds existing in London at the 

 time he wrote. Ray says : " But because Mr. Willughby 

 (though sparing neither pains nor cost) could not procure, 

 and consequently did not describe, all sorts of Birds, to 

 perfect the Work I have added the Descriptions and His- 

 tories of those that were wanting out of Gesner, Aldrovandus, 

 Bellonius, Marggravius, Clusius, Hernandez, Bontius, Wormius, 

 and Piso.'' It may be that additional information on 

 domestic pigeons exists in the writings of these old authors. 

 Gesner is quoted by German writers on pigeons. 



