18 ANCIENT PIGEON-FANCIERS. [CHAP: i. 



particulars respecting the special characteristics of the 

 varieties then in vogue, than we have of their domestic 

 Fowls. Columella is scandalised at the inveteracy and 

 extravagance of the Pigeon Fancy amongst his contem- 

 poraries. " That excellent author, M. Varro, recorded 

 even in his more severe age, that single pairs were 

 usually sold for 8/. Is. 5^d. each. For it is the shame 

 of our age, if we choose to believe it, that persons 

 should be found to purchase a couple of birds at the 

 price of 32Z. 5s. 10d.* ; although I should think those 

 persons more bearable, who expend a heavy amount 

 of brass and silver, for the sake of possessing and 

 keeping the object of fancy wherewith to amuse their 

 leisure, than those who exhaust the Pontic Phasis 

 (for Pheasants to eat), and the Scythian lakes of 

 Moeotis (for a fish dinner). Yet even in this aviary, as 

 it is called, the luxurious process of fatting can be car- 

 ried on ; for if any birds happen to be sterile, or of a 

 bad colour, they are crammed in the same way as Hens."| 

 Pliny also records the prevalence of a Pigeon mania 

 amongst the Romans. " And many are mad with 

 the love of these birds ; they build towers for them 

 on the tops of their roof, and will relate the high 

 breeding and ancestry of each, after the ancient fashion. 

 Before Pompey's civil war, L. Axius, a Roman knight, 



* One always feels uncertain and doubtful of accuracy when 

 converting ancient monies to the modern standard ; but Columella 

 would indeed be indignant could he know the prices now paid for 

 rare birds and animals. Mr. Jamrach told me that he had sold a 

 pair of the large blue Crowned Indian Pigeons for 6QL, and Mr. 

 Yarrell informed me that the market price of a really fine Tiger is 

 400Z. A pair of the Impeyan Lophophorus were, in the autumn of 

 1848, and may still be, worth IQQL sterling. 



f Lib. viii. cap. 8. 



