CHAPTER LXIX. 



THE BARB PIGEON. 



The mention o£ the Barbary pigeon by Shakspere makes it the earliest 

 noticed variety that I know of in our literature. As Willughby givea 

 a recognisable description of the barb under the same name — Barbary 

 pigeon — within a hundred years of Shakspere's allusion to it, there can 

 be no reasonable doubt that this breed has been cultivated for at least 

 three centuries in our country. WUlughby describes it as having a bill 

 like that of a bullfinoh, with a circle of naked tuberous white flesh round 

 its oyea, as in the carriers, and with white iridea ; and adds : " My 

 worthy friend, Mr. Phillip Skippon, in a letter to me concerning tame 

 pigeons, writes that the eyes of thia kind are red." 



I think it likely enough that Willughby's " worthy friend " was Major- 

 General Phillip Skippon, who was so much associated with Oliver Crom- 

 well in the Civil War, and, if so, he is the earliest English pigeon fancier 

 we know anything of. The part he took in the troubled times in which 

 he lived may be learned from Carlyle's " Letters of Cromwell." He 

 was the author of the following religious books : "A Salve for every 

 Sore" (1C43), "Truth's Triumphs" (1648), and " A Pearle of Price " 

 (1649). Wlien Field-Marshal in the army, he was deputed by the 

 Parliament, in conjunction with CromweU and another, to go to Saffron 

 Walden to allay some discontent that had broken out among the soldiers. 

 He is alluded to in an old ballad : 



Some citizens they eay will ride. 

 To buy knacks for their T^ivea ; 

 Let Skippon skip-on as their ffuide. 

 He may protect their lives.' 



Perhaps WiUughby's correspondence is still extant. Skippon's letter 

 about tame pigeons would be interesting to read. 



