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VOTi. XXXV. No. 20. 
WHOLE 
V. No. 20. \ 
No. 1425. f 
NEW YORK CITY, MAY, 19, 1877. 
(PRTC 
l I2..7 
50 VEIL YEAR. 
[Entered accord in tr to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by the Rural Publishing Company, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
®{jt Naturalist, 
PIGEONS. 
Of pigeons there are about thirty distinct 
species scattered over the globe, and so extensive 
is their geographical distribution that they are 
to be found in every part of the world except 
the frigid zones. Their favorite habitats, how¬ 
ever, are the tropical regions of Southern Asia 
and the numerous islands of the Indian Archi¬ 
pelago. There they abound in vast flocks, and 
there tho greatest number of different species 
are to bo met with. 
The many varieties of domesticated pigeons 
are all derived from the wild rock pigeon or 
biset, (Columba livin') which, in its wild state, 
lives in caverns and holes in the rocks along the 
sea coast, and never, as almost all the other 
species do, in woods or upon trees. They swarm 
on the Orkney Islands and tho Hebrides, on the 
North of Scotland, and also on the rocky islands 
in tho Mediterranean Sea. from a few acciden¬ 
tal variations among them all our domestic pig¬ 
eons have originated; for man has carefully 
isolated them and increased the differences be¬ 
tween the various sorts by judicious selection 
and breeding. As far as known, the special 
characteristics thus produced mo permanent, 
when bred in-and-in, but they require constant 
care to prevent them from degenerating. 
Among the numerous varieties of this species 
the heat known are the fautail. Jacobine, pouter, 
tumbler and candor pigeons. Tho fan tail a are 
so called from the large number of their tail 
feathers, the erectile powor of those amt their 
singular trembling motion. Tho birds are small, 
awkward fliers, aud very apt to be upset by the 
wind. When pure, they are generally white, 
sometimes with a black houd and tall. The 
Jacobine has a ruff of raised feathers forming a 
kind of hood, like that of a monk. Tt is small 
hut light ami elegant, with white head, wings 
and tail, and reddish-brown hood, back and 
breast, though some highly prized specimens are 
all pure white. It is very proliflo, a poor flier on 
account of its hood, and generally keeps a great 
deal at home. The pouter derives its name from 
its faculty of inflating the (esophagus to an ex¬ 
tent sometimes equal to the size of its body, but 
as tins inflation subjects it to many diseases, it is 
generally, in spite of its beautiful plumage, not 
very much esteemed by fanciers. The tumbler 
is so called from its habit, of rolling ovor and 
over during its flight, a habit which in some of 
them is developed so excessively as to make fly¬ 
ing almost impossible. 
Tho carrier pigeon—a group of which is excel¬ 
lently illustrated in our engraving -is a larger 
bird than common pigeons, as it. measures about 
15 iuches in length and weighs about 1 y t lbs.; 
the neck is long and the pectoral muscles very 
largo, indicating a power of vigorous and long- 
continuod flight. An appendage cf naked skin 
hangs acrosB its bill and continues down on either 
side of tho lower mandible. According to its 
size and shape, the amateurs of this variety esti¬ 
mate too valno of tho bird. They consider those 
the best that havo tho appendage rising high on 
the head and of considerable width across the 
bill, aud which are also distinguished by wide 
circlets, dcstitnto of feathers, around the eyes. 
The first of tlioao birds naed as a messenger, some 
consider that which Noau sent, out from the ark, 
and which roturued with the olive leaf to cheer 
tho imprisoned patriarch and his curious house¬ 
hold. For ages they havo boon used to convey 
dispatches in Eastern countries, and in many in¬ 
stances actual postal systems were there estab¬ 
lished, witli carrier pigeons as mossongers. Such 
was that fouudod by NouBICDdin Mahmoud, who 
diod in 1174, which was improved and extended 
by the Caliph Aumkd Aluaskr-Liriv-Ai.lah of 
Bagdad, whose euphonious name alone remained 
amonj^the living, after the year 1225. The Ori¬ 
entals, however, did not have a monopoly of this 
kind of service, for according to the statement 
of tho elder Pliny, Df.cius Brutus sent dispatch¬ 
es from Modena to Rome by earner pigeons, be¬ 
fore the Christian Era. The most celebrated in¬ 
stance, in modern times, in which those birds 
acted as messengers, was during the late siege 
of Paris, when they were employed to convey 
dispatches and news of all kiuds over tho lines 
of the beleaguering Germans. Very long docu¬ 
ments, containing a great many messages, were 
condensed by micro-photography on thin dims, 
weighing only a few grains, which were carefully 
fastened either under the wing, to the tail feath¬ 
ers, or a leg of ft pigeon which had been brought 
from Paris in it balloon. The bird was then set 
at liberty, and winged its way to its homo and 
mate in tho besioged city which, for months, re¬ 
ceived all its news from the world outside in this- 
way only. 
In training the birds to act as messengers the 
young pigeons, so soon as they havogot their full 
strength of wing, are taken in a covered basket 
to tho distance of abont a mile from home, there 
set at liberty and any that fail to return to their 
dove-cote are considered stupid and rejected as 
valueless. The distances to which they are car¬ 
ried are successively increased and finaMy tho 
birds become able to return, with certainty, when 
liberated one, or even two thousand miles away. 
CARRIER PIGEONS 
