CHAPTER LIII. 



THE TRIGANICA PIGEON. 



In the city of Modena, the sport of pigeon-flying has been in vogue from 

 time immemorial. Those who are devoted to this sport are called Triga- 

 nieri, and the bird they employ is known as the Triganica, or Triganina 

 pigeon. Historical evidence carries the sport back to the year 1327, the 

 date of the Modenese statute, De Columhis non capiendis nee traiypola 

 teneada. In the same statute, reformed in 1547, the word Triganieros, 

 used only in Modena, is first found. In the Latin poem De Ancu-pio Coter- 

 nicum, by the Modenese, Seraphino Salvarani, published in 1678, there 

 is a fine description of the method in which the Triganieri carry on their 

 aerial warfare. Tasso has alluded to them as 



... A company of loose livers, 

 Given up to gaming and making pigeons fly, 

 ■Which were called Triganieri, 

 Natural enemies to the Bacchettoni, 



the latter being "certain people who go about by day kissing little 

 pictures painted on boards, and in the evening assemble together to use 

 the scourge on their bare backs." About the time that Moore wrote his 

 ''Columbarium," Dr. Domenico Vandelli was writing a description of 

 the sport carried on with pigeons by the Triganieri, which differed but 

 little from that in vogue at the present day. The dovecotes are on the 

 roofe of the houses, and they are surrounded by stepped platforms, on 

 which the Triganieri stand, directing the flight of their pigeons by the 

 waving of a little flag at the end of a pole. The flag, some grain of which 

 the birds are fond, and the shrill whistle of the owner, instead of which 

 a cornet was used in olden times, are all the means used for directing 

 them. The object of the sport is the pleasure of making them fly as 

 required, and the capture of birdR belonging to enemies. Some of the 

 phrases used will illustrate the methods employed. 



