FANCY PIGEONS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The pigeon fancy is a pastime which has its origin in the love of the 

 lower forms of animal life common to men in all countries. It can be 

 traced back in history for thoiisands of years, as in Anaoreon's " Ode 

 to the Carrier Pigeon," and something similar to our modern pigeon fancy 

 existed in Eome eighteen hundred years ago, as I shall afterwards show. 

 The breeding of choice pigeons has a history in our own literature, and has 

 not been confined, as is imagined by some, to the lower classes of society, for 

 Willughby, the ornithologist, who wrote over two hundredyears ago, speaks 

 of the carrier pigeons he saw in the king's aviary in St. James's Park ; 

 while in the present day, Her Majesty Queen Victoria has been pleased 

 to furnish her aviaries with fancy pigeons from the lofts of well-known 

 breeders. Widely distributed as is the love for these birds in Great 

 Britain and Ireland, it is probably exceeded in other countries, especially 

 in India, where they have long been carefully tended. Akbar, the Mogul 

 Emperor of Delhi, either wrote, or had written for him, a book on the 

 subject of pigeons and their varieties ; and to this day the native rulers 

 of India keep large collections of these birds. I have seen the pigeonries 

 of the King of Oude, who is probably the owner of the greatest number 

 of choice pigeons in the world, his stock numbering many thousands. 



When carried out in its highest degree, the breeding of rare domestic 

 pigeons may be regarded as a branch of the fine arts, as it has for its 



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