362 THE DOVECOT PIGEON. 



THE DOVECOT PIGEON. 



" Aspicis ut veniant ad Candida tecta columbse, 

 Accipiat nullas sordida turris aves." OVID, Tris. 



" See to the whitewash'd cot what doves have flown J 

 While that unwhitewash'd not 3. bird will own." 



BY this it appears that the old Romans paid considerable attention 

 to the raising of pigeons. Our common dovecot pigeon is only a 

 half-reclaimed bird, not being sufficiently domesticated to be deemed 

 private property in the strictest sense of the word. Thus, I may 

 raise any quantity of the pigeons, but if they should forsake my 

 dovecot, and retire to that of my neighbour, I cannot claim them. 

 However, in order that dovecot pigeons may not fall into the hands 

 of those who contribute nothing to their support, the legislature has 

 enacted a fine of forty shillings, to be paid by him who has been 

 convicted of having shot a dovecot pigeon. This act, till of late 

 years, was of great use to the farmer, for it enabled him to raise this 

 useful bird in vast abundance : but now the times are changed. 

 The owners of dovecots have to complain, not only of bargemen, 

 who shoot their pigeons along the whole line of the canals whenever 

 an opportunity offers, but also of a plundering set of land vagabonds, 

 who attack the dovecots in the dead of the night, and sometimes 

 actually rob them of their last remaining bird. The origin of this 

 novel species of depredation can be clearly traced to the modern 

 amusement, known by the name of a pigeon-shooting match. A 

 purveyor is usually engaged by the members. He offers a tempting 

 price to poachers and other loose characters, and they agree to 

 supply him with any quantity of dovecot pigeons, to be ready for the 

 day on which the cruel exhibition is to take place. Generally, under 

 the covert of a dark night, these hired thieves go to the place where 

 they have previously seen a ladder, and carry it off to the devoted 

 dovecot, upon the outside of which they mount, and with great 

 caution fix a net to the glover, or aperture, on the top of the build- 

 ing. After they have effected this, 'they descend from the roof, and 



