THE COCK 259 



An actual post system, in which pigeons were the messengers, 

 was established by the Sultan Noureddin Mahmocd, who died in 

 1174. It was improved and extended by the Caliph Ahmed Alraser 

 Lidiv- Allah, of Bagdad, who died in 1225. This flying post lasted 

 till 1258, when Bagdad fell into the hands of the Mongols, and 

 was destroyed by them. There were similar posts in Egypt in 

 1450. The use of pigeons as messengers, however, was not confined 

 to the nations of the East. Decius Brutus, according to the Elder 

 Pliny's account, sent despatches from Modena by pigeons, and in 

 modern times they were made use of during the Dutch war by the 

 inhabitants of Haarlem when besieged in 1573, and at Leyden 

 in 1574, and by the besieged residents in Paris during the Franco- 

 Prussian war of 1870-1. 



The Carrier Pigeon is now used extensively by fanciers for what 

 may be termed sporting purposes, the object being to attain the 

 most striking development of the " homing " faculty, and accom- 

 plishing of the longest distances with greatest speed. The " fancy " 

 varieties are named from their particular characteristics : the pouters 

 from their inflated crops ; the fantails frcm their expanded tail, 

 consisting of no less than thirty-six feathers, the jacobins from the 

 presence of a ruff or hood of feathers on the neck and head, and 

 the tumblers from their habit of tumbling over in the air whilst 

 flying. 



The domestic pigeons are noted for their " love of home," and 

 when regularly and abundantly fed they are not liable to fly abroad 

 for sustenance, and this entirely prevents those frequent losses, 

 from straying and by robbery, to which those who allow their 

 pigeons to pilfer their neighbour's produce are so constantly subject. 

 Pigeons, as a rule, do no harm in gardens, and in cornfields, though 

 under pressing circumstances of hunger they will visit newly sown 

 corn and pluck it up, also corn in sheaf, and even feed on tops of 

 brassicas. The worst part of this plundering is that of the " pigeon 

 clubs " being able to penalize those taking repressive measures 

 against the depredating pigeons, and the owners of these not 

 responsible for negligence in feeding and in keeping them at 

 home. 



COCK (Phasianus gallus). The cock is the well-known chieftain 

 of the poultry-yard, and rural announcer of the passage of time, 

 whose shrill clarion, heard in the still watches of the night, inspires 

 the restless and invalid with cheering hopes of the coming dawn, 

 and informs the wayworn traveller of his approach to human habi- 

 tation, where domesticated, but not subdued, he marches at the 

 head of his train of wives and offspring with a port of proud defi- 

 ance, not less ready to punish aggression against his dependents 

 than to assert his superiority upon the challenge of any rival. At 

 what time this valuable species of pheasant was brought under 

 the immediate control of man it is now impossible to determine ; 



