Chap. V. DESCRIPTION OF BREEDS. 



155 



several minutes; hence their name of Trumpeters. They are also cha- 

 racterised by a tuft of elongated feathers, which curls forward over the 

 base of the beak, and which is possessed by no other breed. Their feet 

 are so heavily feathered, that they almost appear like little wings. They 

 are larger birds than the rock-pigeon, but their beak is of very nearly the 

 some proportional size. Their feet are rather small. This breed was 

 perfectly characterised in Moore's time, in 1735. Mr. Brent says that 

 two varieties exist, which differ in size. 



Kace XI. — Scarcely differing in structure from the wild 

 Columba livia. 



Hub-race I. Laughers. Size less than the Bock-pigeon ; voice very peculiar. 

 — As this bird agrees in nearly all its proportions with the rock-pigeon, 

 though of smaller size, I should not have thought it worthy of mention, 

 had it not been for its peculiar voice— a character supposed seldom to 

 vary with birds. Although the voice of the Laugher is very different 

 from that of the Trumpeter, yet one of my Trumpeters used to utter a 

 single note like that of the Laugher. I have kept two varieties of 

 Laughers, which differed only in one variety being turn-crowned ; the 

 smooth-headed kind, for which I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. 

 Brent, besides its peculiar note, used to coo in a singular and pleasing- 

 manner, which, independently, struck both Mr. Brent and myself as 

 resembling that of the turtle-dove. Both varieties come from Arabia. 

 This breed was known by Moore in 1735. A pigeon which seems to say 

 Yak-roo is mentioned in 1600 in the ' Ayeen Akbery,' and is probably the 

 same breed. Sir W. Elliot has also sent me from Madras a pigeon called 

 Yahui, said to have come from Mecca, which does not differ in appearance 

 from the Laugher ; it has " a deep melancholy voice, like Yahu, often 

 repeated." Yahu, yahu, means Oh G-od, Oh God ; and Sayzid Mohammed 

 Musari, in the treatise written about 100 years ago, says that these birds 

 "are not flown, because they repeat the name of the most high God." 

 Mr. Keith Abbott, however, informs me that the common pigeon is called 

 Yahoo in Persia. 



Sub-race II. Common Frill-back (Die Strupp-Taube). Beak rather longer 

 than in the Bock-pigeon ; feathers reversed. — This is a considerably larger 

 bird than the rock-pigeon, and with the beak, proportionally with the 

 size of body, a little (viz. by '04 of an inch) longer. The feathers, espe- 

 cially on the wing-coverts, have their points curled upwards or back- 

 wards. 



Sub-race III. Nuns (Pigeons-coquilles). These elegant birds are smaller 

 than the rock-pigeon. The beak is actually -17, and proportionally with 

 the size of the body 1 of an inch shorter than in the rock-pigeons, although 

 of the same thickness. In young birds the scutella on the tarsi and toes 

 are generally of a leaden-black colour ; and this is a remarkable character 

 (though observed in a lesser degree in some other breeds), as the colour of 

 the legs in the adult state is subject to very little variation in any breed. 

 I have on two or three occasions counted thirteen or fourteen feathers in 

 the tail ; this likewise occurs in the barely distinct breed called Helmets. 



