144 



DOMESTIC PIGEONS. 



Chap. V 



and agrees pretty closely with the last sub-race ; the other, with shorter 

 wings and tail, is apparently the Pigeon Romain ordinaire of Boitard 

 and Corbie. These Eunts are apt to tremble like Fantails. They are 

 bad flyers. A few years ago Mr. Gulliver 11 exhibited a Eunt which 

 weighed 1 lb. 14 oz.; and, as I am informed by Mr. Tegetmeier, two 

 Eunts from the south of France were lately exhibited at the Crystal Palace 

 each of which weighed 2 lbs. 2$ oz. A very fine rock-pigeon from the 

 Shetland Islands weighed only 14i oz. 



Sub-race IV. Tronfo of Aldrovandi (Leghorn Eunt?).— In Aldrovandi's 

 work published in 1600 there is a coarse woodcut of a great Italian 

 pigeon, with an elevated tail, short legs, massive body, and with the beak 

 short and thick. I had imagined that this latter character, so abnormal 

 in the group, was merely a false representation from bad drawing ; but 

 Moore, in his work published in 1735, says that he possessed a Leghorn 

 Eunt of which " the beak was very short for so large a bird." In other 

 respects Moore's bird resembled the first sub-race or Scanderoon, for it 

 had a long bowed neck, long legs, short beak, and elevated tail, and not 

 much wattle about the head. So that Aldrovandi's and Moore's birds 

 must have formed distinct varieties, both of which seem to be now extinct 

 in Europe. Sir W. Elliot, however, informs me that he has seen in Madras 

 a short-beaked Eunt imported from Cairo. 



Sub-race V. Murassa (adorned Pigeon) of Madras. — Skins of these hand- 

 some chequered birds were sent me from Madras by Sir W. Elliot. They 

 are rather larger than the largest rock-pigeon, with longer and more 

 massive beaks. The skin over the nostrils is rather full and very slightly 

 carunculated, and they have some naked skin round the eyes ; feet large. 

 This breed is intermediate between the rock-pigeon and a very poor variety 

 of Eunt or Carrier. 



From these several descriptions we see that with Eunts, as with Carriers, 

 we have a fine gradation from the rock-pigeon (with the Tronfo diverging 

 as a distinct branch) to our largest and most massive Eunts. But the 

 chain of affinities, and many points of resemblance, between Eunts and 

 Carriers, make me believe that these two races have not descended by 

 independent lines from the rock-pigeon, but from some common parent, 

 as represented in the Table, which had already acquired a moderately long- 

 beak, with slightly swollen skin over the nostrils, and with some slightly 

 carunculated naked skin round the eyes. 



Kace IV. — Barbs. (Indische Taube : Pigeons Polonais.) 



Beak short, broad, deep ; naked skin round the eyes, broad and 

 carunculated ; skin over nostrils slightly swollen. 



Misled by the extraordinary shortness and form of the beak, I did not 

 at first perceive the near affinity of this Eace to that of Carriers until the 

 fact was pointed out to me by Mr. Brent. Subsequently, after examining 



Poultry Chronicle,' vol. ii. p. 573. 



