104 THE PIGEON-FANCIER. 



possessing it and watching other people admire 

 it will amply recompense all the outlay of time 

 and patience it costs. 



The most faithful and constant friend the 

 Baldhead has had during the last forty years 

 is Mr. Woodhouse. This gentleman is a keen 

 Fancier, a clever breeder, a successful exhibitor, 

 and he is profoundly intimate with the habits, 

 requirements, and complaints of the Pigeon. We 

 append a brief sketch of his career : 



MR. WOODHOUSE'S NARRATIVE. 

 I began to keep pigeons when about nine 

 years old, in the year 1834. It was the agony 

 of toothache that gave me a place amongst the 

 noble army of Fanciers. My mother was glean- 

 ing in the harvest field one autumnal afternoon. 

 I ran up to her crying piteously, making a 

 frantic fuss of tears and screams. My dear 

 mother, quite scared, asked, " What is the 

 matter with you, Willie ? " After more sob- 

 bing and stamping, and burying my face in her 

 gown, Willie said, " I have got the toothache." 

 My mother felt for her dear boy dropped her 

 armful of gleanings under the hedge of the 

 harvest-field, sat me on the pile of brown corn, 

 and asked to be shown the tooth that caused 



