The Feather's Practical Pigeon Book 



could lay claim to an established variety, breeding true 

 like the Barb, the Turbit, or the Owl? Yet it seems 

 strange if such sports occurred in earlier times that we 

 never see an instance of it now. Taking this all into 

 consideration, is there not apparently good grounds for 

 the belief that some entertain, that a number at least 

 of our fancy pigeons must have had a more aristocratic 

 origin than the wild Blue Rock? 



I have here given a short history of the supposed 

 origin of our domestic pigeons, and now turn to the 

 pigeon as we know it in the United S*'"''es. The only 

 bird known to us as a pigeon, indigenous to the United 

 States, is the wild or "Passenger Pigeon." This bird 

 being strictly arboreal in its habits, that is, making its 

 home in the woods and building its nests and perching 

 in trees, is more properly a dove, and, therefore, the 

 term pigeon is a misnomer. In form and snape it varies 

 greatly from the true pigeon, and while an occasional 

 specimen has been kept alive in the lofts of some fan- 

 ciers, it can not^ be said to be capable of domestica- 

 tion, for, as a rule, it does not brook confinement and 

 soon pines away and dies. 



As we find by this that we have no pigeons native to 

 this country, we must naturally infer that all our com- 

 mon and fancy pigeons have been imported from for- 

 eign countries, but from what particular section of the 

 Old World they first came history does not inform us. 

 It is reasonable to suppose, however, that they were in- 

 troduced by both the English and Dutch settlers, as 

 both nations are known to have had lovers and breeders 

 of pigeons before the United States were first settled. 



Naturally after becoming domiciled in their new 

 homes and finding nothing of the kind native to the 

 country the first settlers must have had a longing for a 



14 



