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THE ART OF TRAINING PIGEONS IN THE EAST. 



The antiquity of Pigeons as domesticated animals has been 

 well shown by Darwin, in his ' Variation of Animals and Plants 

 under Domestication' (vol. i. pp. 204 — 206). They are known 

 to have been in this condition, he says, for nearly 5000 years ; 

 and it is remarkable in how many countries, and during how long 

 a period, many men have been passionately devoted to breeding 

 them. 



In a Bibliography of books relating to Pigeons which we 

 noticed some little time ago (' Zoologist,' 1887, p. 319), Mr. T. B. 

 Coombe Williams has given a list of some 140 treatises which 

 have been published on this subject, in English (58), German 

 (including translations, 45), French (21), Dutch (3), Latin (3), 

 Italian (5), Spanish (1), and Arabic (1). His list does not profess 

 to be exhaustive, and, if manuscripts were added, the bibliography 

 might be considerably increased. One such manuscript, or rather 

 an English translation from the Persian original, is now before 

 us, for which we are indebted to Mr. Coombe Williams. He 

 informs us that it was written at the request of Sir Charles 

 Aitcheson, Lieut -Governor of the Punjab, by one AUa-oodeen, 

 of Loharoo, and purports to be a criticism of the remarks on 

 "Pigeon-flying" ('ishqbazi) of Shaikh Abul Fazl, the minister 

 and friend of Akbar the Great, which are contained in his 

 account (a. d. 1590) of the government of that great Emperor — 

 by far the greatest work in the whole series of Mohammedan 

 histories of India. The Ain i Akbari, as it is called, contains 

 that information regarding Akbar's reign, which, though not 

 strictly historical, is yet essential to a correct understanding of 

 the times, and embodies those facts for which in modern times 

 we would turn to Administrative Reports, Statistical Compilations, 

 or Gazetteers. " It contains," says Prof. Blochmann (whose 

 translation of it is before us), " the Ain (i. e. mode of governing) 

 of Akbar, and is, in fact, the Administrative Report and Statistical 

 Return of his Government as it was about 1590 a. d." 



The chapter on the Emperor's Pigeons is very interesting, 

 and as the perusal of it is necessary to a proper understanding of 

 the hitherto unpublished commentary by Alla-oodeen, which we 

 now propose to print, it will be desirable first to extract this, 



