THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
59 
PIGEON KEEPING. 
TJEFON enumerates thirty varieties of the pigeon, all 
derived from one root — the stock dove, or common wild 
pigeon. All the varieties of colour and form we witness 
he attributes to human contrivance in crossing : as the 
pigeon is found in all parts of the world, some of the 
differences perceptible in these birds may he attributed to the variety 
of soil, climate, or region, which they inhabit. 
The original of the pigeon genius, the stock-dove, is in its natural 
or wild state of a deep blue and ash colour, the breast darkened with 
a fine changeable green and purple ; the sides of the neck of a reddish 
gold colour ; its wings marked with two black bars, one on the quill- 
feathers, and the other on the covert ; the back white, and the tail 
barred near tho end with black. Some naturalists consider the 
ring-dove to be distinct from the common species, and the turtle- 
dove equally so from both. In this country, the only wild sorts are 
ring-doves or wood-pigeons, and turtle-doves, which are found 
plentifully in the southern and w-estern countries, breeding in the 
woods during the spring and summer, and retiring into the deepest 
recesses during the winter. Abroad, they assemble in prodigious 
flocks ; and in North America they migrate in the spring and fall in 
multitudes that darken the air, flight succeeding flight in one con- 
tinual stream. At such seasons vast quantities are killed and 
preserved for use. For purposes of profit, the blue dove-house pigeon 
is the most common breed domesticated in this country. It is need- 
less to describe these : we shall enumerate the fancy sorts, kept for 
purposes of amusement or show. 
Carriers, Horsemen , and Dragoons, are bred for the purpose of 
travelling with messages, which ihey can be trained to do with 
extraordinary speed and accuracy, provided no accident happens to 
the bird on its voyage. The common pigeon partakes of the habit 
also ; and for this reason it is very difficult to domesticate old birds 
in any other place than that in which they are reared ; for although 
removed in covered baskets, it is extraordinary with what unerring 
instinct they will wing their way home. The feats of the carriers 
regularly trained for the purpose are, however, extraordinary, parti- 
cularly in Eastern countries, where a constant communication is 
kept up between cities by this means ; for instance, at present 
between Aleppo and other towns in Syria and Alexandria, the bird 
traversing in a few hours the space which it would occupy a messenger 
for days to travel across the desert, and thus informing Ali Pacha of 
the condition of his affairs in that province. A communication, 
principally for stock-jobbing purposes, is also kept up between the 
cities of Europe; but as the maintenance of the system is expensive, 
it is confined to a select few, principally Jews, and no very certain 
information ever reaches the public as to the performances of the 
birds. A few years ago, some matches were made, an account of 
which may be interesting, as showing the extraordinary speed which 
a pigeon is capable of, being in fact greater than that attributed to 
the eagle. 
February. 
