66 THE PIGEON-FANCIER. 



of them if fool enough to part with your money 

 for what is not genuine. I searched around the 

 Rostra for a real relic. Perhaps in the heat of 

 his oratory Marc dropped his pocket-handker- 

 chief his spectacles rolled off his nose he 

 might have left his umbrella behind as he hur- 

 ried off to plot with Octavius. If I could secure 

 any of these articles my fortune was made at 

 once. I found nothing, and in the pangs of 

 my disappointment treated the historic spot as 

 legendary lore. But had not our guide told 

 us ? Guides always tell the truth. Guides 

 are not poets ; they never create the yarns they 

 spin, or imagine the history they rehearse. 

 Guides are not novelists ; they never manu- 

 facture romantic tales and indulge in fiction. 

 Guides are not artists ; they never draw pic- 

 tures which are highly-coloured and glazed. 

 Guides, gentle reader, are men of science 

 exact science grave, sober, prosy men, who 

 never step out of the realm of clearly ascertained 

 and established fact. Guides are men of honour 

 they never lie, therefore you can rely upon all 

 the information they impart. 



A great quantity of matter, mostly super- 

 fluous, has been written upon the Diseases of 

 Pigeons, as though they are birds weakly and 



