CHAPTER XXXVII. 



THE RUNT PIGEON. 



As explained before, the name of runt waa formerly applied generally to 

 all common pigeona in England, and it is no doubt often atill ao 

 used ; but pigeon fanciers now use the name to designate the variety 

 of gigantic pigeona which Moore and subsequent authora wrote of as 

 the Spanish runt. I ahould auppose that the name was given on account 

 of the breed having but little to distinguish it, in general conformation, 

 from the common pigeon, that they were looked upon when first introduced 

 into England as the common pigeons of the place they came from, and 

 that the name is not, as supposed by Willughby, a corruption of the 

 Italian Tronjo, or of anything else. The runt would appear to be of an 

 ancient race. Dixon says : — " But the point respecting runts which 

 most deserves the notice of speculative naturalists ia their extreme anti- 

 quity. The noticea of them in Pliny and other nearly contemporary 

 writers are but modern records ; for Dr. Buckland enumerates the bones 

 of the pigeon among the remains in the cave at Kirkdale, and figures a 

 bone, which he says approaches closely to the Spanish runt, which is 

 one of the largest of the pigeon tribe. Ever since the classic period, 

 these birds have been celebrated among the poultry produce of the 

 shores of the Mediterranean." 



The runt would therefore appear to have been distributed throughout 

 Europe from Italy, and the name it bears in Prance, from where we get 

 the best, is Pigeon Bomain, which points to a like origin for the breed. 

 The general colours of the runt are blue and silver, but there are many 

 others, in some of which the breed can claim a high position as a fancy 

 pigeon. The blue and silver haye, perhaps, reached the greatest weights, 



