206 DOMESTIC PIGEONS. Chap, VI. 



inhabitants of Delhi and of some other great cities are eager 

 fanciers. Mr. Layard informs me that most of the known 

 breeds are kept in Ceylon. In China, according to Mr. Swinhoe 

 of Amoy, and Dr. Lockhart of Shangai, carriers, fantails, 

 tumblers, and other varieties are reared with care, especially 

 by the bonzes or priests. The Chinese fasten a kind of 

 whistle to the tail-feathers of their pigeons, and as the flock 

 wheels through the air they produce a sweet sound. In Egypt 

 the late Abbas Pacha was a great fancier of fantails. Many 

 pigeons are kept at Cairo and Constantinople, and these have 

 lately been imported by native merchants, as I hear from Sir W. 

 Elliot, into Southern India, and sold at high prices. 



The foregoing statements show in how many countries, and 

 during how long a period, many men have been passionately 

 devoted to the breeding of pigeons. Hear how an enthusiastic 

 fancier at the present day writes : " If it were possible for noble- 

 men and gentlemen to know the amazing amount of solace and 

 pleasure derived from Almond Tumblers, when they begin to 

 understand their properties, I should think that scarce any noble- 

 man or gentleman would be without their aviaries of Almond 

 Tumblers." 35 The pleasure thus taken is of paramount import- 

 ance, as it leads amateurs carefully to note and preserve each 

 slight deviation of structure which strikes their fancy. Pigeons 

 are often closely confined during their whole lives ; they do not 

 partake of their naturally varied diet ; they have often been 

 transported from one climate to another ; and all these changes 

 in their conditions of life would be likely to cause variability. 

 Pigeons have been domesticated for nearly 5000 years, and 

 have been kept in many places, so that the numbers reared 

 under domestication must have been enormous : and this is 

 another circumstance of high importance, for it obviously 

 favours the chance of rare modifications of structure occasionally 

 appearing. Slight variations of all kinds Avould almost certainly 

 be observed, and, if valued, would, owing to the following cir- 

 cumstances, be preserved and propagated with unusual facility. 

 Pigeons, differently from any other domesticated animal, can 

 easily be mated for life, and, though kept with other pigeons, 

 they rarely prove unfaithful to each other. Even when the 

 35 J. M. Eaton, ' Treatise on the Almond Tumbler,' 1851 ; Preface, p. vi. 



