The Frlllback. 1 1 1 



to it, the frillback. This was the more inexcusable, as the frillback 

 was not extinct in England. If any pigeon requires a new name it is 

 this one ; being neither a runt nor a frillback, it may be appropriately 

 named the frizzled pigeon. 



CHAPTER XL. 



THE FRILLBACK PIGEON. 



The first mention of this cnrions bird was in the " Treatise on 

 Pigeons," dedicated to John Mayor, published in 1765. As the 

 description is very good, concise, and clear, I reproduce it. " The frill- 

 back is something less in size than a dragoon, and in shape like the 

 common runt ; their colour generally {if not always) white ; and what is 

 chiefly remarkable in them is, the turn of their feathers, which appear as 

 if ereryone distinctly had been raised at the extremity with a small round 

 pointed instrument, in such manner as to form a small cavity in each of 

 them." The frillback, which is the German Strupp oder Perltavhe, 

 bristle or pearl pigeon, is said to be a native of the Netherlands, and 

 Brent met with it in Saxony. It is of the size of the common field 

 pigeon, and described as always pure white in colour, with an orange or 

 gravelly red iris. I believe this variety is always white, and I have 

 never seen it of any other feather. They are turn crowned and smooth 

 legged. Their peculiar appearance is caused by the ends of their 

 feathers, more especially those of the wing coverts and secondaries, 

 being goffered or crimped, as if by a pair of curling tongs, as Brent 

 describes it. This appearance is often seen in a less degree on hard 

 feathered pigeons like dragoons. As Brent says, the frillback must not 

 be confused with the Friesland runt, with which it has nothing whatever 

 in common. 



