Chapter XIV. 



X THE TRIGANICA PIGEON. X> 



| N the city of Modena tlie sport of pigeon- 

 flying has been in vogue from time im- 

 memorial. Those who are devoted to this 

 sport are called Triganieri, and the bird 

 they employ is known as the Triganica, or 

 Triganina Pigeon. Historical evidence carries the sport back 

 to the year 1327, the date of the Modenese Statute, De 

 Columbia non Capiendis nee Trappola Tenenda. In the same 

 Statute, reformed in 1547, the word Triganieros, used only 

 in Modena, is first found. In the Latin poem, De Aucupio 

 Coternicum, by the Modenese, Seraphino Salvarani, published 

 in 1678, there is a fine description of the method in which the 

 Triganieri carry on their aerial warfare. Tassoni has alluded 

 to them as 



... A company of loose livers, 

 Given up to gaming and making pigeons fly, 

 Which were called Triganieri, 

 Natural enemies to the Bacchettoni, 



the latter being " certain people who go about by day kiss- 



