62 PIGEONS AND THE PIGEON FANCY; 



Britain. The dove which whispered into the Great Proph- 

 et's ear has endeared this bird to Mussulmans ; Russians 

 feel at this late day a practical affection toward them be- 

 cause of the service rendered at the Deluge ; and the 

 many associations of the dove with Scripture have kept 

 alive a sentiment at least in their favor throughout 

 Christendom. Large numbers are publicly fed every day 

 in the great square of Venice ; flocks soar across the 

 smoky sky of London ; the streets of St. Petersburg, 

 Cairo, and Constantinople abound in them, tame and fear- 

 less. Among the rafters in the dock-sheds of New York 

 City live hundreds of pigeons, protected and cherished by 

 salt and stevedore ; and the spillings from the nose-bags of 

 the horses in Boston are devoured by denizens of loft, 

 cornice, and church-tower ; while amid the smoke and din 

 of the railway station in Salem doves rear their young. 



In feudal days the barons only were allowed to keep 

 pigeons, which they suffered to prey upon the crops of 

 their tenantry, who had no redress. So that, in France 

 especially, we find hard words spoken against the dove- 

 cotes those towers of masonry in which these birds were 

 lodged. These dovecote pigeons were no doubt at first 

 the "blue rocks," which had been captured in their native 

 haunts. 



The pigeon fancy must be considered strictly a fancy. 

 Many men make it a business, of course, and a pigeon 

 pie is a pleasing incident ; but the bald questions " Does 

 it pay ? " and " Do you eat them ?" are considered almost in- 

 sulting by the true fancier, and are a sign that the ques- 

 tioner must experience, in respect to this subject, a sort 

 of new birth before he can be enlightened. The fancy, 

 then, is sesthetic, allied to that for roses, dahlias and tu- 

 lips ; and I will venture to assert, that in grace of form, 

 and beauty of color and marking, those flowers have in 



