CHAP, iv.] AKCHANGEL PIGEONS CHARACTERISTICS. 99 



which the amateur is advised most strongly to insist 

 upon. Good Trumpeters are not common. Occasion- 

 ally they are met with pure white. 



The ARCHANGEL PIGEON is not mentioned in any 

 treatise on the subject that I have met with : nor can I 

 ascertain whether it owes its name to having been ori- 

 ginally brought to us from the Kussian port, or via Arch- 

 angel from some other quarter, as Tartary or India. My 

 first glimpse of the bird was at Knowsley; and I have 

 since, through the liberal kindness of the Earl of Derby, 

 become possessed of a pair from those. His lordship had 

 them from the Messrs. Baker, of Chelsea. The colour- 

 ing of these birds is both rich and unique. The head, 

 neck, and fore part of the back and body, is chestnut, or 

 copper-colour, with changeable hues in different lights. 

 The tail, wings, and hinder parts of the body are of a sort 

 of blue-black ; but many of the feathers on the back and 

 shoulders are metallic and iridescent a peculiarity not 

 usual in other domestic Pigeons. The chestnut and blue 

 black portions of the bird do not terminate abruptly, but 

 are gently shaded into each other. There is a darker 

 bar at the end of the tail. The iris is very bright orange- 

 red : the feet clean and unfeathered, and bright red. 

 Archangel Pigeons have a turn of feathers at the back of 

 the head very similar to that of the Trumpeter, or to 

 Aldrovandi's woodcuts of his Columba Cypria. It is 

 the colouring rather than the form which so specially 

 distinguishes them. Their size is very much that of the 

 Rock Dove. It is curious, that of two Archangel Pigeons 

 sent me by a Yorkshire friend, one had the " turn " at 

 the back of the head, and the other was smooth-headed, 

 or rather smooth-occiputed ; and the young they have 



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