6 Fa7jcy Pigeons^ 



the Chronicle, will show where its peculiarity lay. From the crown 

 of its head rose a crest of feathers something- like what embellishes the 

 head of the great crowned pir;:eon of the Eastern Archipelago. The ac- 

 count of the bird as given at the time by its owner, Mr. W. Woodhouse, 

 was as follows; "This curious pigeon is alive, and in my possession. 

 It is a pure bred baldpate, of which it has the properties — viz., clean cut, 

 pearl-eyed, clean-thighed, and ten a side. It is the only one in the world, 

 and is a cock bird. Several competent judges have seen it, and consider 

 it a freak of nature ; but whatever it is, it is a wonder. Several of my 

 friends wish me to breed from it to get more, but of this I am doubtful." 

 A few weeks after the above was published, Mr. Brent, the well-known 

 authority on pigeons, wrote as follows in the Poultry Chronicle: "A 

 month or two back Mr. James Pryer, a neighbour of mine, and a tolerable 

 judge of pigeons, informed me he had seen something ourioiis in that line 

 at Sevenoaks. He described it as a common chequered dovehouse pigeon, 

 with some rather long feathers growing from the head. Seeing Mr. 

 AVoodhouse's description of his crested baldpate, I showed him the cut, 

 and he assured me that, so far as he could see, the pigeon in question 

 was crested just the same. We have both made enquiries respecting 

 the bird, but have not succeeded in discovering whence it came, or where 

 it is gone. Mr. "Woodhonse's pigeon is certainly a curiosity." 



It will thus be seen that twice within a short time the said pecuUarity 

 was observed' in separate breeds of pigeons. Unforttmately, Mr. Wood- 

 house's baldpate does not seem to have produced young like itself, or we 

 should now be in possession of a variety quite distinct from anytliing 

 that has come under my notice either here or abroad. To such sports, 

 coming uncalled for and unexpectedly, must, I think, be referred all the 

 strange types of pigeons now existing on the globe. The whiskered owl, 

 whose frill is so much developed that it divides at the top and runs 



almost round the neck in some birds, seems also a recent introduction at 



least I can find no notice of this type in any old book on the subject 

 of fancy pigeons ; but this can scarcely bo called a new variety ; it is rather 

 an extraordinary development of an old one. 



Of late years we have received from abroad many kinds of pigeons of 

 the highest excellence, showing such breeding that what we had before of 

 the same types seemed but half bred beside them. Still, no quite new 

 or distinct forms have reached us, entirely different from what we knew of 



