CHAPTER XXXI 



RUNTS 



Darwin on Runts — Piobable Origin — Name A^ery Inappropriate — Runts 

 Sometimes Bred in Individual Pens — Cliange for Better in Type — 

 Runts Not Slow Breeders — Description of the Different Varieties. 



Charles Darwin, the famous writer and ornithologist made 

 quite an exhaustive study of pigeons during his life and he has 

 handed down to us many facts that are especially valuable 

 In writing on the history of Runts he says, in his "Animals and 

 Plants Under Domestication:" "Of tlieir history little can be said. 

 In the time oi' Pliny the pigeons of Campania were the largest 

 known and from this fact alone some authors assert that they 

 were Hunts. In Aldrovandi's time, in IGOO, two sub-breeds 

 existed; hut one of them, the short beaked is now extinct in 

 Europe." As far as we have been able to ascertain no one has 

 any real knowledge as to where the first Runts came from but 

 research reveals the fact that they were bred in many of the 

 European countries centuries ago and our Runts of today no 

 doul)t descended from the Spanish Runt, though one of the 

 foremost brced'ers of Runts in this country claims that they 

 have come from the Roman Runt, having come to this country 

 from (lermany, and were originally known in this country as 

 German Runts. 



Why this largest of all pigeons should have been given such 

 an inappropriate name we cannot understand for it is anything 

 but a Runt. However, its name counts for but little for in this 

 breed we have a bird of sterling worth and one which is steadily 

 growing in popularity. In recent years we have noticed some 

 of the largest breeders, and the most noted ones, take up the 

 breeding of Runts which fact alone proves the real worth of 

 the breed. 



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