POULTRY 11 



walls of wells, and even in inhabited buildings. 

 It does not care about trees, and you hardly 

 ever see a tame pigeon settle in one, while 

 wherever pigeons are seen living a free life 

 about towns you are certain to see plenty 

 of the original blue black -barred sort. As 

 Herodotus says that when the Persians in- 

 vaded Greece white pigeons were first seen 

 there, we can be sure that pigeons had not 

 been much looked after in Europe at that 

 time, for so pretty a bird as a white pigeon, 

 when one did appear, would have been taken 

 care of and bred from by pigeon-fanciers. 



The Romans, we know, thought a great deal 

 of pigeons, both for eating and as fancy birds, 

 and they used to build towers for them to live 

 in, no doubt the original patterns for the old 

 stone pigeon-houses which are now and then 

 to be seen in old farms in the country. 



One naturally thinks of ducks next to fowls 

 as poultry, but ducks are not such very 

 ancient tame birds as history goes. In a 

 description of a Roman poultry-yard which 

 has come down to us there is nothing said 

 about ducks, though flamingoes and peacocks 

 are mentioned as well as fowls and geese and 



