66 THE PIGEON-FANCIER. 



of them if fool enough to part with your money 

 for what is not genuine. I searched around the 

 Rostra for a real relic. Perhaps in the heat of 

 his oratory Marc dropped his pocket-handker- 

 chief — his spectacles rolled off his nose — he 

 might have left his umbrella behind as he hur- 

 ried off to plot with Octavius. If I could secure 

 any of these articles my fortune was made at 

 once. I found nothing, and in the pangs of 

 my disappointment treated the historic spot as 

 legendary lore. But had not our guide told 

 us ? Guides always tell the truth. Guides 

 are not poets ; they never create the yarns they 

 spin, or imagine the history they rehearse. 

 Guides are not novelists ; they never manu- 

 facture romantic tales and indulge in fiction. 

 Guides are not artists ; they never draw pic- 

 tures which are highly-coloured and glazed. 

 Guides, gentle reader, are men of science — 

 exact science — grave, sober, prosy men, who 

 never step out of the realm of clearly ascertained 

 and established fact. Guides are men of honour 

 — they never lie, therefore you can rely upon all 

 the information they impart. 



A great quantity of matter, mostly super- 

 fluous, has been written upon the Diseases of 

 Pigeons, as though they are birds weakly and 



