io8 About the Feathered Folk. 



There is scarcely a large building 

 in London which has not its haunt- 

 ing Pigeons. 



Londoners like to see them. 

 Even the street-arabs and the 

 message-boys refrain from "shy- 

 ing" at creatures that are so 

 sturdily trustful, so daintily sure of 

 their right to their own place in 

 the world. 



It is sometimes difficult to deter- 

 mine the colour of London Pigeons. 

 They live amid such soot and 

 grime, that their delicate plumage 

 gets grimy, too, by contact. Besides, 

 these " Pigeon-fanciers " carefully 

 rear varieties black, and white, 

 copper-coloured, and pied ; and the 

 birds, recruited as they are from all 

 parts of the country, get sorely 

 mixed. 



But the prevailing hues are 

 various shades of grey and blue, 

 merging off into purple on the one 

 hand, and into white on the other. 



