The Slier ajee. 123 



shaken as I have described, before it woiild perform. He says that in 

 the book on pigeons written for Akbar by Abdool Farjool, about 1596, 

 both varieties are mentioned. 



The other correspondent, writing from Eohilcund, had kept the com- 

 mon lowtans for two years, and on inquiring for the high caste or 

 Choteen lowtan — so called because they were said to roll on the Chotee 

 or txirncrown being touched — he procured four specimens, all of which 

 roUed on being struck on the back of the head with the forefinger. One 

 of them was similar to his common lowtans, another similar in appear- 

 ance, but turbit marked, being white with dark shoulders, and the 

 other two had " great long legs feathered to the toes." 



I never happened to see any of the kind that performed on being 

 merely touched, nor other than pure white ones. 



CHAPTER XLVII. 



THE S HER AJEE PIGEON. 



The Sherajee, so named in Bengal, but called Sherazie in Northern 

 India, is a favourite pigeon in Hindostan. The name is no doubt derived 

 from the city of Sheraz, in Persia, where it might have originated. 

 This pigeon is in shape and size very similar to the tight-feathered 

 trumpeters, common in this country before the so-called Russians were 

 introduced. The head and beak of the Sherajee are of the common 

 type, the latter neither short nor long and thin ; and birds of good 

 colour have always a reddish tinge on the eye ceres, beak wattles, and 

 edges of the mouth. The irides are dark hazel colour, the head un- 

 hooded, and the legs and feet feathered ; long toe feathers spreading 

 out on each side being much admired. The marking of the Sherajee is 

 peculiar to itself, nothing similar to it being found in any other variety I 

 know of. The upper mandible is coloured, except with those colours that 

 are generally accompanied by a flesh-coloured beak, and the marking, 

 commencing at the beak wattle, runs over the head and down the back 



