270 
The I llustr a ted Book of Pigeons. 
victor at the Olympic games, used a pigeon to carry home the news of his success. In England 
the birds have been used for carrying the intelligence as to the winners in horse-races, for 
monetary intelligence, before telegrams were invented, and for a few other purposes ; but only to a 
very limited extent. 
“ For many years Belgium has been the chief abode of the homing bird. There he has been 
bred for many successive generations with a view to the obtaining of a strain embodying all the 
perfections of an ideal racing bird. To that quarter, then, we must look for much information, the 
necessary consequence of great experience, the benefit of which we obtain without the toil, loss, 
disappointment, and labour, by means of which it has been obtained, though with all the informa- 
tion we may have on paper, success is not to be obtained without personal experience and individual 
sacrifices. There is no reason in the world why we in England should not be able to breed as 
good birds as the Belgian amateurs do, if we only persevere as they have done, breed from none 
but the best, throw the middling birds to the dogs (or cats), and in practice carry out literally the 
theory of the survival of the fittest.” 
“ The shape of the bird is somewhat like that of the common Blue Rock pigeon, but the breast 
is very full and wide, the head rounded at the top (there are some birds with high heads, having 
the top slightly flattened), broad between the eye, giving a very capacious skull ; the eye is promi- 
nent, with a deep orange pupil, having a bold and determined air about it. Round the iris is 
sometimes found a circle or liUe of a darkish hue, and as a rule, such birds, being good in other 
respects, are highly esteemed. The beak is thick and black as a rule, though in many birds the 
beak runs out somewhat, and accordingly loses in thickness and strength, and occasionally a white 
beak appears where the birds are descended from othefs of a light colour, but generally the beak 
is of a medium length, measuring from the centre of the pupil to the end of the beak one inch 
and five-sixteenths being an average length. When a bird has a thin beak it is apt to be 
thought longer than it really is, in consequence of the variation in the proportions ; a thick beak 
of medium length is the most general among good birds. I now mefely refer to the birds as 
bred for flying. The wattle upon the beak is in sofne breeds much Wore prominent than in 
others ; some have very little indeed on the upper mandible, and none on the lower ; others have 
a larger amount, which is generally rather flat, running upwards from the beak towards the head, 
where it rises into a sort of ridge, running across each half of the wattle. Again, some have a 
rather round, or pea-shaped, wattle. The shape or quantity of wattle, however, differs in the 
various strains, though all may have proved themselves of equal excellence. On the lower 
mandible a wattle appears on each side, but is of small proportions. The wattle round the eye 
in some specimens is of a dark colour, in place of the usual white powdered appearance. In some 
breeds, and especially in many foreign strains, a sort of incipient frill is to be observed in the 
front of the neck just above the breast. This has doubtless been handed down by the breeders 
from the original stock from which the present homing bird has been formed. As regards the 
purpose for which the birds are bred, I am inclined to look upon the frill with disfavour, as likely 
to present a hindrance to the attainment of speed when the bird is on the wing. The gullet 
appears, also, in some strains in the same manner as in the Owl pigeon. 
“ The wings are very powerful, and form a distinctive feature of the bird. Standing out from 
the body-feathers, they show their thickness of bone and muscle, and seem ready at once to perform 
their work. It will be observed on stretching out the wings that there are ten large, long feathers 
called the primaries, or, in pigeon parlance, the flight-feafhers. These are each of them very broad ; 
thus one overlaps the other to a great extent, and forms a powerful engine of locomotion by 
reason of the solidity of the set of feathers opposed to the air when striking downwards in flight. 
