charge of the king's Pigeons and fed the lyons. The king having a kind" 

 ness for Bausset, was pleased she should intercede, and gave orders imme- 

 diately to have him taken out. No sooner had he spoke the word, than 

 all the pages ran, striving who should be foremost, and left the king alone, 

 at the first entrance into the Seraglio, which so highly offended him, that 

 he called them back, and laid eight of them on the floor, all bloody and 

 wounded with his scimitar. 



12. — However, when his wrath was appeased, the captive woman re- 

 doubled her entreaties so earnestly, that he could not refuse her, but 

 ordered that she should go with her husband and one Prieur, a surgeon of 

 Poitiers, to take Bausset from among the lyons, which was accordingly 

 done, when he had been there five hours ; for he leaped in at four, and 

 came out at nine. Some days after, the lyons shewed not the same respect 

 to three Faquers or Doctors of the Law of Mahomet, who took upon them 

 to reprove the king for his cruelty, and were therefore cast into the same 

 place, and immediately torn in pieces by the lyons. This story was well 

 attested, brought to Paris, and put into the hands of the reverend fathers 

 the mercenarians of Paris, to satisfy such as may call the truth of it in 

 question. However, I had not made use of this story, only as it shews 

 that even kings have been proud to confer the greatest favours upon those 

 who were no more than the keepers of their Pigeons. Thus we see how 

 the knowledge of these birds has been propagated and encouraged in most 

 parts of the World at a very great expense, while every observer had still 

 this natural History to obtain in the same experimental and costly way, 

 and was often grossly imposed upon by having a mixed strain put into 

 his hands instead of the real species ; yet notwithstanding all this, and the 

 ease wherewith it might have been accomplished, I find an almost pro- 

 found silence among the Naturalists upon this head. 



13. — I have, therefore, ventured first to launcb forth into this new 

 science, not being insensible that I shall leave much room for others to 

 make great improvements, if any shall hereafter think it worth their while 

 to follow that track which I have only pointed out to them ; and I hope 

 the learned world know how to make allowances for a first attempt in the 



13. (Eaton.) — To the young aud inexperienced Fancier, — I am particularly desirous 

 of calling your attention to Paragraph 13. ; it is nearly worth the whole of the paragraphs 

 put together, until we come to consider the properties of Pigeons as laid down by the 

 standards, which we have to breed up to and surpass if possible. 



(Eaton.) — The late Mr. John Moork states positively, without evasion or 

 equivocation, that he was the first to launch forth into this new science. I am bound 

 to believe him, having never seen an earlier Work on the subject. At the time I am 

 writing, 1858, — Mr. Moore's Work was ])ublished in 1735, being 123 years ago, — 

 the inference I draw, it is true ; it would be folly in a young Fancier to state it was 

 not true, unless he was prepared to prove it by books of an earlier date, as old Fanciers 

 would know, that the young Fancier was not old enough to recollect it. It is my 

 intention to reprint the whole of the late Mr. John Moobe's Work upon Pigeons 

 word for word, and if any inaccuracies arise, it will be the fault of the Compositor, it 

 not being- my wish to alter a single letter, believing his Work to be the original upon 

 Fancy Pigeons, and is the groundwork from which all other Works on the subject have 

 been taken, which, by-and-bye, I shall endeavour to prove ; had it not been the fact. 

 Fanciers of that time would have contradicted ; Authors, Compilers, and Commentators, 

 would have handed it down topostei-ity ; and to prove uiy assertion, I would recommend 



