CHAP. IV.] LACE AND FRIZZLED PIGEONS. 141 



sians still entertain for the family of Pigeons, may be 

 attributed to the influence of traditions whose source is 

 far earlier than the Christian era. 



THE LACE and the FRIZZLED PIGEONS are both great 

 rarities : the latter I have never seen ; the former only 

 in the collection of her Majesty the Queen, at Wind- 

 sor. The Treatise speaks of the Lace Pigeon as " ori- 

 ginally bred in Holland, where I am informed there are 

 great numbers of them ; though not one that I know of 

 is to be seen in England at present. It is in size ra- 

 ther less than a common Runt, and like it in shape and 

 make ; though I once saw a Shaker of this kind ; their 

 colour is white, and they are valued on account of their 

 scarcity and the peculiarity of their feathers ; the fibres, 

 or web, of which appear disunited from each other 

 throughout their entire plumage, and not the least con- 

 nected, as is common with all other Pigeons, where they 

 form a smooth close feather." The birds most nearly 

 approaching to these in plumage are the Silky Fowls. 

 The Frizzled Pigeon is called by the Treatise, The 

 Frilled-lack. " What is chiefly remarkable in them," 

 it says, " is the turn of their feathers, which appear as 

 if every one distinctly had been raised at the extremity 

 with a small round pointed instrument, in such a man- 

 ner as to form a small cavity in each of them. Aldro- 

 vandi figures a" Columba crispis penn is," without giving 

 a description of it ; but proving, however, that among 

 Pigeons, as among Fowls, there have existed, for some 

 hundred years at least, Frizzled or, as they are called 

 by some, Friesland races of birds. 



Beyond these there appear to me to be no other va- 

 rieties of solely domestic Pigeons which demand notice ; 

 but a few supplemental particulars may be given before 



