154 ANCIENT AND MODERN VARIETIES. 



large yew-tree, said to be three centuries old, which 

 grew in the garden within a few yards of the house. 

 We seldom saw the old birds, which used the utmost 

 vigilance. We were well supplied with them from 

 the neighbouring forest. In 1827, immense flocks 

 of wood-pigeons, to the computed number of two 

 thousand in one field, were seen upon the lands near 

 Chi chester. Sir H. Fisher's keeper killed sixty couple 

 in one day. 



But both in the ancient and modern world, this 

 beautiful and variegated genus of birds has been 

 cherished by man as a source of amusement, and of 

 gratification to the eye, as well as of profit, in the 

 article of provision for the table. Among certain of 

 the nations of antiquity, moreover, pigeons were held 

 sacred, and their lives no one dared assail. The 

 useful qualification of MESSENGER, appertaining to the 

 Asiatic and African species of the pigeon, is of high 

 antiquity : and we read in the time of the Crusades, 

 of an Arabian prince, who had a sort of telegraphic 

 communication kept up in his dominions, through 

 the instrumentality of pigeons, which carried letters, 

 and were regularly relieved at the appointed posts. 

 From those, doubtless, the breed celebrated in 

 Europe, under the name of THE CARRIER, has pro- 

 ceeded. 



In modern times, those varieties which are kept 

 for the purposes of amusement and show, are styled 

 FANCY BREEDS, and they form a distinct article of 

 commerce in cities and great towns, the varieties, as 

 they chance to be in fashion, bringing a considerable 

 price. In London, the pigeon fanciers immemorially, 



