124 Fancy Pigeons. 



of the neck, tiU it meets the back and wings. Looked at in profile, the 

 marking- should show a clean division down the side of the neck ; from 

 behind the neck appears all coloured, and from before all white. The 

 back, wings, and flight feathers are also coloured, the rest of the 

 l")lumage being pnro white. 



A rarer variety of the Sherajee is that known as the mottled. The 

 breast of this variety must be well mottled over with single feathers, no 

 two of which ought to touch each other. This is a kind of mottling 

 peculiar to Indian fancy pigeons, being the reverse of what is required in 

 this country, where standard, mottling is always oomxiosed of single white 

 feathers on a coloured ground. The mottled Sherajce, when anything 

 like perfect, becomes a very valuable pigeon, and is often sold at so much 

 the mottle, and I was told on good and satisfactory authority that as 

 much as 1000 rupees had been paid for a fine bird of this breed. "While 

 a few coloured feathers on the breast of the Sherajee only spoil what 

 might otherwise be a good plain-breasted bird, when the number reaches 

 to about thirty single well separated mottles, the value is reckoned some- 

 thing in the same way as that of the diamond, by squaring the number 

 of feathers and multiplying by a price. After all, 1000 rupees, formerly 

 equal to about ^100 sterling, is no more than has been paid in this 

 country for a carrier, and Indian potentates are known to be as keen 

 in acquiring the objects of their fancy as people of any other country. 



The Sherajee can only be seen good in the collections of experienced 

 pigeon fanciers, though no bird is more common in the places in Calcutta 

 where pigeon shops abound. I have seen them in black, red, yellow, and 

 dun, also in blue and silver, both barred and barless, and in many off 

 colours. Those found in the bazaars for sale are almost invariably of 

 black marking, and generally either bare or only half feathered on the legs. 



Some five or six hundred large vessels leave Calcutta for Great Britain 

 every year, and few of them without some live stock on board as 

 pets, for sailors are very fond of a monkey, parrot, or pair of birds to 

 amuse themselves with on the long voyage. In this way many black 

 Sherajee pigeons, such as can be bought for 2s. or 3s. a pair, have 

 reached this country, and probably they have been coming for the last 200 

 years or more ; but the earliest mention of this breed I know of in our 

 literature, is in the 'Poultry Chronicle vol. 3, page 443, in the report of 

 Prescot Show, in Lancashire, on the 4th July, 1855, as follows: '* The 



