The Swallow-tailed. 115 



in colour, which was fifteen years old, and in good condition. I have 

 known of a pouter cock breeding well when twelve years old ; but it 

 would cheapen the price of fine pigeons if they all lived so long. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 



THE SWALLOW-TAILED PIGEON. 



I HAVE never aeen the variety of domestic pigeon that has a forked tail 

 like the common house swallow, and no pigeon fancier, either here or 

 abroad, seems to have described it from actual observation. The exist- 

 ence of such a breed seems to depend on what has been said by Bechstein, 

 the German naturalist, from whom Brent, who is the only fancier who 

 mentions it, has gathered the following : " Die taube mit Schwalben- 

 Bchwanz. — Bechstein, in his 'Natural History of Germany,' describes 

 this variety as occasionally to be found among the collections of pigeon 

 fanciers, and says they are blue, chequered, or black mottled, the outer 

 feathers of the tail being much prolonged, or forked like that of the 

 chimney swallow, from which circumstance they derive their name." And 

 Brent adds, "a pigeon fancying acquaintance informed me that he once 

 had a pair of swallow-tailed baldheads, which he purchased in Man- 

 chester ; ao I conclude this variety is also to be met with in England, 

 though I have not seen it. Some of the wild pigeons or doves of foreign 

 countries have long wedge-shaped tails, but such a formation of tail I 

 have never seen or heard of among our domestic pigeons." 



Considering other variations in domestic pigeons, a forked tail is not 

 an unlikely deviation ; but as no home or foreign fancier has described 

 the swallow-tailed pigeon from actual observation, and as it would be 

 easy to add the word taU to the word swallow, especially in the mind of 

 a naturalist, I think Bechstein's description must be regarded as apocry- 

 phal tin we know more on the subject. Could we once fix the swallow- 

 tail on the domestic pigeon, a natural variation might subsequently take 

 place, by which the long outer tail feathers would take an outward 

 horizontal curl, and so resemble the tail of the black grouse. I have 



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