VARIETIES CALCULATIONS ON FLIGHT. 153 



DIAL properties of almost every part of the pigeon ; 

 thus much, however, may be relied on, their flesh, 

 when young and in good condition, is a nourishing 

 and stimulant diet ; that of the full-aged pigeon 

 more substantial, but harder of digestion, and, in a 

 considerable degree, heating. The general rule of 

 colour affecting quality in the flesh, holds good in 

 tame pigeons. The black and dark feathered are 

 proportionally dark or brown fleshed, of high 

 flavour, inclining to the game bitter of the wild 

 pigeon. The light colour in the feathers, denotes 

 light and delicate flesh. Their DUNG is of an ex- 

 tremely heating and drying quality, whether as a 

 manure, or for medicinal purposes. It was, in for- 

 mer days, a principal ingredient in nitre-beds, when 

 that article was almost entirely manufactured at 

 home. 



CARRIERS, HORSEMEN, and DRAGOONS, are travel- 

 lers or messengers, and I have occasionally seen 

 TUMBLERS turned off, at the distance of forty miles 

 from home. The carrier, it is said, has performed 

 a journey of forty miles in an hour and a half, and 

 of even ninety miles in three hours. A dragoon has 

 flown seventy-six miles in two hours and a half: 

 this ancient fancy of flying pigeons had declined, 

 but has, it seems, revived within a few years. The 

 admired qualities in the TUMBLER are excessive high 

 flight, so as to be almost imperceptible to the keen- 

 est eye, in fine and clear weather ; perseverance in 

 their flight for many hours together, and tumbling 

 over and over repeatedly during their ascent arid 

 descent. 



H5 



