Fancy Pigeons. 



' O learned friend of Abchnrch-lane, 

 Wlio sett'st onr entrails free, 

 Vain is thy art. tliy powder yam, 

 Since worms shall eat e'en thee.'" 



The " Columbariuni" is a thin octaTO of sixty pages. There are 

 four copies of it in the British Museum, and one in the possession of Mr. 



Esquilant, uf Brixton, the well-known pigeon judge, which I hare seen. I 

 know of no others ; but Mr. Eaton, whose works on pigeons will be 

 afterwards mentioned, had one which is supposed to have been burnt 

 or otherwise destroyed. I know some fanciers who tried to obtain it 

 after his death, but it could not be found. At page 191 of his treatise 

 of 185S Eaton graphically describes the discovery of this rare pigeon 

 book. He had spent many a spare hour, as I have done, in trying to 

 obtain it, and he at last succeeded. '^' The hoy went down a tremendous 

 long shop to his employer, who went and laid his hand upon a book. I 

 saw the boy coming with a book in his hand, I thought it was something 

 about pigeons, never thought it was Moore's work. To my astonish- 

 ment and delight it was the identical work I was in search of. Having 

 it in my hands, I thought my eyes would have darted out of the sockets 

 of my head when I beheld the book. I thought, ' I'll be blessed if ever 

 this book leaves my possession, whatever the price.* " 



The "Columbarium" was reprinted by Eaton in his "Treatise on 

 Pigeons," 1852 and 1858, but these are now scarce themselves. It has 

 also been reprinted in America, and lately in England (at the Field 

 office). The latter is a verbatim et literaflm copy of the original edition 

 of 1735, and contains a brief notice of the author by W. B. Tegetmeier, 

 F.Z.S. An original copy would, no doubt, realise a fancy price from a 

 pigeon enthusiast. 



The next book on pigeons published in this country was " A Treatise 

 on Domestic Pigeons, inscribed to John Mayor, Esq., London, printed 

 for and sold by C. Barry, in Ingram-court, Fenchurch-street, 1765." Thia 

 work, an octavo of 160 pages, has been called, by mistake, chiefly a 

 reprint of Moore without acknowledgment. The author, who was an ex- 

 perienced pigeon fancier, says in his preface : "In regard to the model 

 of this treatise, we do not offer it to the public as an entire new work, 

 but have proceeded on the plan of Mr. Moore, have corrected some 

 errors, and made many additions. And as Mr. Moore's essay is very 

 deficient for want of cuts to convey a just idea of the different species, 



