160 PIGEONS. 



shape of the ordinary dove-house pigeon, offering no distinctive peculiarities 

 whatever ; their colours were various, — some were blue, others slaty, some were 

 irregularly mottled, whilst others were self-coloured, as red or white. Their voice 

 was very remarkable, being far more irregular and varied than that of the 

 Trumpeter, and so strikingly peculiar, that no person unacquainted with the sound 

 and not seeing the bird, could have imagined it to have emanated from a pigeon. 

 As these birds offered no structural peculiarities that would render them valuable 

 as show birds, they were not much sought after, and we do not know whether the 

 breed has been maintained in its purity even since the date of its last intro- 

 duction. 



