52 THE PIGEON-FANCIER. 



galleries and churches, and all the sublime attrac- 

 tions of gondoleering adown the grand canal paled 

 before the choice delight of spending a quiet hour 

 in the sunshine of St. Mark Square mobbed by a 

 multitude of pigeons. 



These birds, as all the world knows, are mar- 

 vellously tame ; but some of my readers may 

 not know that they have been settled in the 

 city ever since 877. After the religious services 

 on Palm Sunday, it was anciently the custom of 

 the sacristans of St. Mark's to release doves fet- 

 tered with fragments of paper, and thus partly 

 disabled from flight, for the people to scramble 

 for in the square. The birds caught were fat- 

 tened and eaten at Easter, but those pigeons 

 which escaped took refuge in the roof of the 

 church, where they gradually assumed a sacred- 

 ness of character and increased to enormous 

 numbers. Formerly they were fed by the Re- 

 public, but now they flourish on a bequest left 

 by a pious lady for their maintenance and on 

 the largess of grain bestowed by strangers. 

 Small bags of " feed " are sold on the Square. 

 And as soon as the birds see a stranger with 

 a bag in his hand, they instantly swoop down 

 upon him and take forcible possession of the 

 proffered repast. 



