CHAPTER X. 



COMMON PIGEONS. 



Common pigeons, strictly speaking, are rock or dovehouse pigeons, as 

 found in a state of nature or in a semi-wild state. I have already referred 

 to them elsewhere, and have only to add that in the west of Scotland 

 they are bred by pigeon fanciers, who have a class for their favourites at 

 the annual show held in the town of Kilmarnock. 



Looking, as I have often done, at the class at this show, which 

 generally includes over a dozen entries of blues and blue chequers, I 

 have felt that I would rather not have the responsibility of awarding 

 the prizes, they are so very much alike. When a breed comes to be pro- 

 duced as they are, for size, good shape, and purity of colour and type, 

 they must necessarily cease to bo regarded as quite common, and would 

 more truly be designated as fancy rock or dovehouse pigeons. Common 

 pigeons are generally understood to be those of mixed race, so interbred 

 that it is often impossible to guess at their ancestry, and the same abound 

 in almost every town and village in the kingdom. The old English 

 name for them was runts, probably having the same meaning as when 

 applied to common cattle, as Welsh runts, though a canary hen of three 

 years of age was also called a runt. (See old dictionaries.) Moore 

 refers to common pigeons, after describing the fancy runts: "To these 

 we may add the common runt, which are kept purely for the dish, and 

 generally in locker holes in inn yards or other places, and are well known 

 to everybody ; they are good feeders, and therefore good nurses for any 

 of the more curious sorts of pigeons." 



In France these common runts are known as Pigeons Mondains, and 

 according to Boitard and Corbie, who describe them as having no special 



