THE PEDIGREE OF THE FANCY. 31 



Over 2000 years ago the " honey-tongued 

 Anacreon sung the praises of the Carrier 

 Pigeon — giving it a poem all to itself. Ana- 

 creon was a rare specimen of human nature. 

 Polycrates, the ruler of Samos, presented him 

 with the large sum of five talents. He spent 

 two wakeful nights thinking of his money, and 

 then returned it to the giver, saying that it " was 

 not worth the care it cost him." The Romans 

 were ardent Pigeon- Fanciers. Pliny says of his 

 countrymen : " Many are mad with the love of 

 these birds ; they build towers for them on the 

 tops of their roofs, and will relate the high breed- 

 ing and ancestry of each. Axius, a Roman 

 knight, sold a single pair of pigeons for 400 

 denarii, or nearly £1^ modern currency. 



In India pigeons were alway highly esteemed. 

 Akber Khan, about the year 1 600, was an in- 

 veterate and extravagant fancier — never less than 

 20,000 were taken with the court. The mon- 

 archs of Iran and Turan sent him some very rare 

 birds; "and," continues the same courtly historian, 

 " his majesty by crossing the breeds, which prac- 

 tice was never practised before, has improved them 

 astonishingly." The native rulers in India still 

 remain faithful to the old Fancy of their fathers. 

 Mr. Lyell says : " I have seen the pigeonries of 



