136 Fancy Pigeons. 



their compounda of from two to twenty acres of ground, are now chiefly 

 owned by the ex-king of Oude, a State prisoner there, who haa gradually 

 bought up a great many of them, and surrounded them by a high wall. 

 When passing up the Hooghly river I often saw flights of pigeons that 

 seemed to number thousands, flying, to all appearance, under command, 

 over the king's grounds ; but, as it was impossible to gain admittance to 

 the place, I could never get a closer inspection of them, till observing in 

 the newspapers one day that certain people would be admitted, I hastened 

 to avail myself of the opportunity. The ex-king of Oude has what is said 

 to bo the largest private collection of rare birds and animals in the world, 

 on which he has spent an immense sum of money, and of which he is very 

 fond. It would be out of place here to describe the beautifully laid out 

 grounds, the lovely plants, the rare animals, the marble-margiued tanks 

 or ponds, surrounded by gilded railings, and full of rare aquatic birds, and 

 the houses fitted up as aviaries, and full of the most gorgeously feathered 

 birds ; so I shall confine myself to a description of the four great flights 

 of pigeons which are kept in four of the houses in the king's grounds. 

 These flights are said to number about a thousand in each, and are 

 composed of only one breed, the native name of which I forget. This 

 variety is a medium-sized, very hard-feathered, smooth-headed, bare- 

 legged, boldly upstanding, rather long-faced pigeon, not unlike the cross 

 between a dragoon and tumbler. It is invariably pied in colour, the head 

 and neck, as far as in the Triganica or nun pigeons, being usually 

 coloured. The rest of the plumage is white, on which irregular patches 

 of colour, differing in different individuals, may be found. It is difficult 

 to find any two exactly alike in marking. The four large flocks are of four 

 colours, one being black pied, and the others red, yellow, and blue pied. 

 The houses these flocks are kept in were formerly dwelling houses, in the 

 upper rooms of which, I was told the pigeons were bred. The keeper of 

 each flight has a long bamboo, to which is attached a small flag, and a jar 

 of seed, something like millet in appearance. He must also be an adept 

 in being able to utter a shrill whistle, by placing liis first and second 

 fingers between his lips. It will therefore be seen that the modvs oper- 

 andi of directing the pigeons is exactly the same as in use in Modena. 

 The flight I observed first was composed of blue pieds, whose keeper drove 

 them out of the lower hall of the house, in which they were, with his 

 bamboo. They all settled on a large rack, such as is fitted up in green- 



