THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 59 



PIGEON KEEPING. 



j,ITFFON enumerates thirty varieties of the pigeon, all 

 derived from one root — the stock dove, or common wild 

 pigeon. All the varieties of colour and form we witness 

 he attributes to human contrivance in crossing : as the 

 pigeon is found in all parts of the world, some of the 

 differences perceptible in these birds may be attributed to the variety 

 of soil, climate, or region, which they inhabit. 



The original of the pigeon genius, the stock-dove, is in its natural 

 or wild state of a deep blue and ash colour, the breast darkened with 

 a fine changeable green and purple ; the sides of the neck of a reddish 

 gold colour ; its wings marked with two black bars, one on the quill- 

 feathers, and the other on the covert ; the back white, and the tail 

 barred near the end with black. Some naturalists consider the 

 ring-dove to be distinct from the common species, and the turtle- 

 dove equally so from both. In this country, the only wild sorts are 

 ring-doves or wood-pigeons, and turtle-doves, which are found 

 plentifully in the southern and western countries, breeding in the 

 woods during the spring and summer, and retiring into the deepest 

 recesses during the winter. Abroad, they assemble in prodigious 

 flocks ; and in North America they migrate in the spring and fall in 

 multitudes that darken the air, flight succeeding flight in one con- 

 tinual stream. At such seasons vast quantities are killed and 

 preserved for use. For purposes of profit, the blue dove-house pigeon 

 is the most common breed domesticated in this country. It is need- 

 less to describe these : we shall enumerate the fancy sorts, kept for 

 purposes of amusement or show. 



Carriers, Horsemen, and Dragoons, are bred for the purpose of 

 travelling with messages, which they can be trained to do with 

 extraordinary speed and accuracy, provided no accident happens to 

 the bird on its voyage. The common pigeon partakes of the habit 

 also ; and for this reason it is very difficult to domesticate old birds 

 in any other place than that in which they are reared ; for although 

 removed in covered baskets, it is extraordinary with what unerring 

 instinct they will wing their way home. The feats of the carriers 

 regularly trained for the purpose are, however, extraordinary, parti- 

 cularly in Eastern countries, where a constant communication is 

 kept up between cities by this means ; for instance, at present 

 between Aleppo and other towns in Syria and Alexandria, the bird 

 traversing in a few hours the space which it would occupy a messenger 

 for days to travel across the desert, and thus informing Ali Pacha of 

 the condition of his affairs in that province. A communication, 

 principally for stock-jobbing purposes, is also kept up between the 

 cities of Europe ; but as the maintenance of the system is expensive, 

 it is confined to a select few, principally Jews, and no very certain 

 information ever reaches the public as to the performances of the 

 birds. A few years ago, some matches were made, an account of 

 which may be interesting, as showing the extraordinary speed which 

 a pigeon is capable of, being in fact greater than that attributed to 

 the eagle. 



February. 



