1 85 5.] PIGEON FANCYING. 5 1 



and the prussic acid gas thus generated was very quickly 

 fatal." 



A letter to Mr. Fox (May 23rd, 1855) gives the first 

 mention of my father's laborious piece of work on the 

 breeding of pigeons : 



" I write now to say that I have been looking at some of 

 our mongrel chickens, and I should say one week old would 

 do very "well. The chief points which I am, and have been 

 for years, very curious about, is to ascertain whether the 

 young of our domestic breeds differ as much from each other 

 as do their parents, and I have no faith in anything short 

 of actual measurement and the Rule of Three. I hope and 

 believe I am not giving so much trouble without a motive of 

 sufficient worth. I have got my fantails and pouters (choice 

 birds, I hope, as I paid 2Os. for each pair from Baily) in a 

 grand cage and pigeon-house, and they are a decided amuse- 

 ment to me, and delight to H." 



In the course of my father's pigeon-fancying enterprise he 

 necessarily became acquainted with breeders, and was fond of 

 relating his experiences as a member of the Columbarian 

 and Philoperistera Clubs, where he met the purest enthusiasts 

 of the " fancy," and learnt much of the mysteries of their art. 

 In writing to Mr. Huxley some years afterwards, he quotes 

 from a book on Pigeons by Mr. J. Eaton, in illustration of 

 the " extreme attention and close observation " necessary to 

 be a good fancier. 



"In his [Mr. Eaton's] treatise, devoted to the Almond 

 Tumbler alone, which is a sub-variety of the short-faced 

 variety, which is a variety of the Tumbler, as that is of the 

 Rock-pigeon, Mr. Eaton says : ' There are some of the 

 young fanciers who are over-covetous, who go for all the 

 five properties at once (i.e. the five characteristic points 

 which are mainly attended to, C. D.), they have their reward 



E 2 



