156 



DOMESTIC PIGEONS. 



Chap, y 



Nuns are symmetrically coloured, with the head, primary wing-f ea th 

 tail, and tail-coverts of the same colour, namely, black or red and wS 

 the rest of the body white. This breed has retained the same' charact 

 since Aldrovandi wrote in 1600. I have received from Madras aim Z 

 similarly coloured birds. ; ost 



Sub-race IV. Spots (Die Blass-Taube : Pigeons heurtes).— These bird 

 are a very little larger than the rock-pigeon, with the beak a trace small e S 

 in all its dimensions, and with the feet decidedly smaller. They a * 

 symmetrically coloured, with a spot on the forehead, with the tail and 

 tail-coverts of the same colour, the rest of the body being white' Tl ' 

 breed existed in 1676; 22 and in 1735 Moore remarks that they breed truly 

 as is the case at the present day. ' ' 



Sub-race V. Swallows.— These birds, as measured from tip to tip of win-- 

 or from the end of the beak to the end of the tail, exceed in size the rock- 

 pigeon ; but their bodies are much less bulky ; their feet and legs are like- 

 wise smaller. The beak is of about the same length, but rather slighter 

 Altogether their general appearance is considerably different from that of 

 the rock-pigeon. Their heads and wings are of the same colour, the rest 

 of the body being white. Their flight is said to be peculiar. This' seems to 

 be a modern breed, which, however, originated before the year 1795 i u 

 Germany, for it is described by Bechstein. 



Besides the several breeds now described, three or four other very 

 distinct kinds existed lately, or perhaps still exist, in Germany and 

 France. Firstly, the Karmeliten, or Carme Pigeon, which I have not 

 seen; it is described as of small size, with very short tegs, and with an 

 extremely short beak. Secondly, the Finnikin, which is now extinct in 

 England. It had, according to Moore's 23 treatise, published in 1735, a 

 tuft of feathers on the hinder part of the head, which ran down its back 

 not unlike a horse's mane. " When it is salacious it rises over the hen 

 and turns round three or four times, flapping its wings, then reverses and 

 turns as many times the other way." The Turner, on the other hand, 

 when it " plays to the female, turns only one way." Whether these extra- 

 ordinary statements may be trusted I know not; but the inheritance of 

 any habit may be believed, after what we have seen with respect to the 

 Ground-tumbler of India. MM. Boitard and Corbie describe a pigeon 24 

 which has the singular habit of sailing for a considerable time through 

 the air, without flapping its wings, like a bird of prey. The confusion 

 is inextricable, from the time of Aldrovandi in 1600 to the present day, 

 in the accounts published of the Draijers, Smiters, Finnikins, Turners, 

 Claquers, &c, which are all remarkable from their manner of flight. Mr. 

 Brent informs me that he has seen one of these breeds in Germany with 

 its wing-feathers injured from having been so often struck together ; but he 

 did not see it flying. An old stuffed specimen of a Finnikin in the British 

 Museum presents no well-marked character. Thirdly, a singular pigeon 



22 Willoughby's ' Ornithology/ edited 

 by Ray. 



23 J. M. Eaton's edition (1858) of 



Moore, p. 98. 



24 Pigeon Putu Plongeur. 

 Pigeons,' &c, p. 165. 



Let* 



