CHAPTER XX. 



THE ARCHANGEL. 



rpHIS pigeon was not known to the older fanciers : the author of " The Dovecot 

 -*- and the Aviary" states, that at the date of the publication of his work in 

 1S51, it had not been mentioned in any treatise previously published. The 

 history of its introduction and the description of its characteristic properties are 

 more correctly given in the following valuable account, by Mr. S. Betty, the 

 honorary secretary of the National Columbarian Society, than by any other writer. 



Mr Betty states : — 



" The Archangel is one of the few artificial or fancy breeds which, without any 

 change of form or structure from that of the wild species, commends itself to the 

 critical fancier by the extreme beauty and the novelty of its colouring, and taxes 

 his skill to the utmost to preserve its peculiar characteristics. 



" The introduction of the Archangel into England has been of comparatively 

 recent date, consequently no account of it appears in any of the older treatises. 

 Dixon, in his ' Dovecot and Aviary,' devotes a chapter to it, but his description is 

 very inaccurate, and he confesses to being ignorant of the date of its introduction. 

 I have, therefore, much pleasure in publishing the following statement, which I 

 received from the well-known fancier Mr. Frank Redmond, formerly of the Swiss 

 Cottage, St. John's-wood. Mr. Redmond informs me that he was in Ghent, in 

 1839, and whilst there was selecting some pigeons for the late Sir John Seabright, 

 when he saw this breed for the first time, and was informed that it had been 

 recently introduced from Russia. With some difficulty he procured a pair, and 

 this breed, from its novelty and beauty of plumage, remained high in favour with 

 Sir John, at whose death the Archangels became distributed, the greater number 

 passing into the possession of the late Earl of Derby ; so that Dixon says he first 

 saw the bird at Knowsley. I am not aware that, even at the present time, any 

 fancier possesses a large stud of Archangels, and I am inclined to think the bird 

 has deteriorated in our hands through in-and-in breeding. 



" The chief points or properties in the Archangel are : colour, tuft, and 

 carriage. 



" Colour. — The colouring is both rich and unique. The head and neck-hackle 

 should, after the first moult, be of a deep and brilliant copper-red, changing into 

 dark bronze ; the wings and back of a deep black, shining with a brilliant bur- 

 nished metallic lustre, and reflecting the richest iridescent hues of blue and 



