Chap. VI. FORMATION OF EACES. 205* 



3000 B.C.; 31 but Mr. Birch, of the British Museum, informs 

 me that the pigeon appears in a bill of fare in the previous 

 dynasty. Domestic pigeons are mentioned in Genesis, Leviticus 

 and Isaiah. 32 In the time of the Bomans, as we hear from 

 Pliny, 33 immense prices were given for pigeons ; " nay, they 

 are come to this pass, that they can reckon up their pedigree 

 and race." In India, about the year 1600, pigeons were much 

 valued by Akber Khan : 20,000 birds were carried about with the 

 court, and the merchants brought valuable collections. " The 

 monarch of Iran and Turan sent him some very rare breeds. His 

 Majesty," says the courtly historian, " by crossing the breeds, 

 which method was never practised before, has improved them 

 astonishingly." 34 Akber Khan possessed seventeen distinct 

 kinds, eight of which were valuable for beauty alone. At about 

 this same period of 1600 the Dutch, according to Aldrovandv 

 were as eager about pigeons as the Bomans had formerly been. 

 The breeds which were kept during the fifteenth century in 

 Europe and in India apparently differed from each other. 

 Tavernier, in his Travels in 1677, speaks, as does Chardin in 

 1735, of the vast number of pigeon-houses in Persia ; and the 

 former remarks that, as Christians were not permitted to keep 

 pigeons, some of the vulgar actually turned Mahometans for this 

 sole purpose. The Emperor of Morocco had his favourite keeper 

 of pigeons, as is mentioned in Moore's treatise, published 1737. 

 In England, from the time of Willughby in 1678 to the present 

 day, as well as in Germany and in France, numerous treatises 

 have been published on the pigeon. In India, about a hundred 

 years ago, a Persian treatise was written; and the writer thought 

 it no light affair, for he begins with a solemn invocation, "in 

 the name of God, the gracious and merciful." Many large 

 towns, m Europe and the United States, now have their societies 

 ot devoted pigeon-fanciers : at present there are three such 

 societies m London. In India, as I hear from Mr. Blyth, the 



■ T^SfSt IS 7 \ a n ° ae ° f these are — t0 ^ Euro-- 



Dixon 1851 pn 1 Is y |L fp , .' Jf*" ^^ Thls fact Mcate * 

 Jjixon, 1851, PM1-13. AdolphePictet the antiquity of the domestication in 



(in Ins Les O.gmes Indo-Europe- the East of the pigeon 



ennes. 1859, p. 399) states that there 33 p^,- , + ^ °, * 



are in the ancient Sanscrit language be- ch. xxxvf nSlatl ° D ' 1601 ' ^ * 



tween 25 and 30 names for the pigeon 34 < a ' ah 



and Che, U or ,6 Persia, £££ 9^^-- * * 



