460 



PIGEON. 



their abode. Cleansing the inside frequently, and 

 whitewashing the outside as occasion requires, are 

 also very necessary operations. The i'act is, that 

 pigeon-houses are like all other things, if they are 

 expected to be profitable they must be attended to ; 

 and there arc many known instances in which the 

 slovenly keeper of a pigeon-house has found the 

 greater part of his flock go over to the establishment 

 of his neighbour merely because it was in better 

 order, and the reproving deserters made no hesitation 

 in coining to levy their contributions upon the crops 

 of their slovenly master. We have, however, said 

 enough of the wild and the domesticated economy of 

 these birds when allowed to remain in numerous 

 flocks. 



Of the fancy varieties we shall do little more than 

 barely mention the names ; because there is no 

 certain information upon the only point which, in a 

 natural-history view of the matter, is of any import- 

 ance, namely, the particular means by which the 

 variations were produced and have been continued. 

 The last part of this is a curious fact. We do know, 

 not from pigeons only, but from many other animals, 

 both birds and mammalia, which break into varieties 

 under the hand of man, that, when the variet} r is once 

 obtained, it can be continued ; and the most curious 

 part of the matter is, that the artificial change may be 

 directed to the size and modified form of the animal, 

 or to the farther development of any of its particular 

 actions or instincts. Thus, in the dog, there is not 

 the slightest doubt that there is only a single natural 

 species of the animal ; and yet the sizes, the powers 

 of motion, the disposition, and the senses, are varied 

 to an extent which one can hardly imagine ; and yet, 

 excepting in some crosses which have been obtained 

 in times comparatively modern, nothing is known of 

 the matter with anything like certainty. It is the 

 same with the different breeds of fancy pigeons ; and 

 yet there could have been no cross in the first 

 splitting into two breeds in either of these or in any 

 other. 



The principal breeds or varieties of fancy pigeons 

 (and the distinction between a breed and a variety is 

 really a distinction without a difference) may be 

 briefly enumerated as follows, though to enumerate 

 the whole would be a hopeless task, as they may be 

 increased without end : the Roman, which is of very 

 varied colours, and has the naked skin at the base of 

 the upper mandible nearly white ; the Norway, 

 which has the body pure white, the feet feathered, 

 and a crest on the head ; -the Barbary, which has a 

 naked tuberculated space round the eye, and two 

 dusky spots on each wing ; the Persian, which has 

 the naked skin at the base of the bill red and tuber- 

 culated ; the Broach-tailed Shaker, which has a 

 vast number of feathers in the tail, often more than 

 three dozen, with the power of erecting and spread- 

 ing them like the tail of a turkey-cock ; and when it 

 does this, it shakes with violent agitation ; the Nar- 

 row-tailed Shaker, a cross with the female of the last, 

 retains the trembling action, but has the tail narrower, 

 consisting of fewer feathers, and incapable of the 

 same spread] and erection ; the Jacobin, which has 

 the feathers of the. hind head and sides of the neck 

 thread-shaped and erected ; the Laced, which has 

 small standing-up feathers scattered over the back 

 and wings ; the Smiter, which turns over when it 

 flies, and strikes its wings against each other with 

 considerable violence ; the Turner, which has the 



feathers on the middle of the hind neck reversed, and 

 standing up like a mane ; the Panter, which has 

 the power of inflating the craw, till it projects forward 

 as far as the point of the bill ; the Houseman, 

 which has also the power of inflating the craw, and 

 the naked skin at the base of the bill warty ; the 

 Turbil, with the feathers on the breast reversed ; the 

 Tumbler, which, while it flies, performs the operation 

 after which it is named much in the same way as the 

 Smiter, but which does not, like that, make a noise by 

 striking the wings against each other ; the Hough- 

 footed, with hair-like feathers on the feet, but with- 

 out any crest of produced feathers on the head ; the 

 Crested, which has the feet feathered in the same 

 mariner as the preceding, and has, in addition, a crest 

 upon the head. These are but a specimen out of 

 many ; and as they have no peculiarity of habit 

 answering to their peculiarity of form, or no useful 

 property answering to their peculiarity of action, 

 they are worthy of attention by the bird-fanciers 

 only. There is, however, one other variety which 

 has, from very remote times, engaged so much 

 celebrity, that we cannot pass it over without some 

 slight notice. This species is 



The Carrier Pigeon, or the Messenger. In conse- 

 quence of its celebrity, and also of the differences 

 between it and the wild rook and pigeon-house 

 pigeon, there have been many disputes about it. 

 Some have maintained that it is a distinct species, 

 but for this there appears to be no good foundation. 

 Many of the other fancy breeds differ as much from 

 the wild bird as it does. It possesses the love of 

 home in a very high degree ; and there is no known 

 species in wild nature at all answering to it. Be- 

 sides, carrier pigeons differ from each other ; they 

 vary in size, and the small ones resemble the common 

 pigeon in more points than the large ones do. 



The carrier is a larger bird than most varieties of 

 the common pigeon. It is about fifteen inches in 

 length, and a pound and a quarter in weight. The 

 shape of its body is graceful. Its neck is long, and 

 its pectoral muscles are very large, indicating a 



fower of vigorous as well as long-continued flight, 

 ts plumage is remarkably compact, but no general 

 description of the colour of that plumage can be 

 given, as the bird is subject to much variety in this 

 respect. This, of itself, is sufficient to prove the 

 fact that the bird is a mere variety. Black, and a 

 sort of dim sand-colour, are most common ; but the 

 blue and pie-bald blue are more rare, and therefore 

 more prized by the curious in birds. The naked 

 skin upon the bill of the carrier pigeon is very large, 

 of a whitish colour, and scurfy or warty appearance, 

 and hanging down as a sort of wattle on each side of 

 the lower mandible. This appendage extends for- 

 ward, and terminates in a point about the middle of 

 the length of the bill. The cere on the Turkish or 

 Persian pigeon is also large, and scurfy or warty, as 

 in this one ; and this circumstance has led some to 

 mistake it for the carrier pigeon. It is, however, a 

 bird of very different habits, low and heavy in its 

 flight, and possessing no particular attachment to its 

 home, not more at least than is possessed by the 

 wild rock or the common pigeon-house pigeon. The 

 fleshy appendage to the bill of the Turkish pigeon is 

 different in appearance from that of the carrier ; it 

 extends into a wider naked space round the eye, and 

 it is blotched or mottled with reddish. The colours 

 of the bird are in general different j but, as we have 



