The Feather's Practical Pigeon Boolt. 



think it would make them tired." These are only a few 

 samples of what the judge has to hear. But I repeat, it 

 shows lamentable ignorance among those whom we 

 would suppose should at least |cnow something of the 

 characteristics of these denizens of the loft. 



If pigeon breeding were more general and the same 

 pains taken with them that is given to cage-birds, 

 the dove-cote would soon become as necessary to 

 every country house as the flowers that bloom in the 

 door-yard, and these we all know are only kept alive and 

 brought to perfection by constant care. It is said that 

 in Arabia every mud-hut has .its accommodations for 

 pigeons ; in Russia they are well known and regarded 

 as sacred, and every one has heard of the pigeons of 

 Venice. The old Romans were great lovers of fancy 

 pigeons, and Pliny says of his countrymen: "Many are 

 mad with the love of them ; they build towers on the top 

 of their roofs and will relate the high breeding and an- 

 cestry of each." So that we may see from this that 

 pedigree breeding is no modern idea ; and as to the 

 madness of our modern fanciers, when a man pays $250 

 and $300 for a pair of pigeons, those not interested 

 might well think him mad. People of oriental countries 

 have from time immemorial been fanciers, and some of 

 our choicest varieties — in fact, I may say most of them — 

 had their origin in those far-off lands. We send mis- 

 sionaries to teach them our religion ; they might send 

 missionaries to us to teach us of the pleasure to be de- 

 rived from originating new varieties of pigeons and in 

 perfecting those we already know. My observation 

 teaches me that while the fancy may not be increasing 

 in numbers, it is certainly increasing in the knowledge 

 of the principles of breeding, as is shown by the im- 

 provement in all varieties of pigeons known to us. Note 



94 



