36 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
October 20. 
several varieties. We find noticed “ tlie Roman," and 
Columella says, “ let not such as are of different kinds 
be joined together, as the Alexandrian and the Cam¬ 
panian." That they had the Carrier variety, we have 
this testimony of Pliny. “ Pigeons have been em¬ 
ployed as inter-messengers upon affairs of great urgency. 
Letters were sent annexed to their feet, to the camp of 
the Consul, by Decimus Brutus, whilst besoiged in 
Modena. Of what avail were the trench and watchful 
sentinels of Antonius, when the messenger traversed 
the sky ! ” “ Many men, adds Pliny, have such a love 
for these birds, that they build towers for them upon 
the roofs of their houses, and have pedigrees showing 
the purity and descent of each. Even the ancients, as 
exemplified in Lucius Axius, a Roman of the Equestrian 
Order, before the Pompeian civil war, sold every pair of 
his pigeons ( denariis quadringentis) for £12 19s., as 
Marcus Varro has recorded. It is certain that some 
countries are very celebrated for the excellence of their 
breed, thus in Campania are considered the largest 
to be produced.” Nor did the mania decrease, for 
Columella says—“ 1 am ashamed of my own age, if we 
believe that some purchasers are to be found who have 
paid four thousand nummi (£32) for a pair of birds.” 
What would the old Roman have written, if he had 
been at Stevens’s auction, and seen .£40 given for one ! 
It is true that this one was a Shangbae cock, but for 
a century much larger prices, if wo estimate the com¬ 
parative weights, have been given for Fancy Pigeons in 
this country. Thus we have before us the account of a 
sale of nineteen pairs of “ Powter Pigeons,” on the 30th 
of December, 1701, in Beach Lane, London. They 
fetched £92 9s. Gd., and one pair was knocked down 
for sixteen guineas. Two pair-s were afterwards re-sold 
for thirty-six guineas. An account of the sale is in 
Mr. Eaton’s work, which we shall notice presently. 
It was in the first half of the last century, that the 
cultivation of the Pigeon was most general in England, 
and during that period appeared the first works upon 
the subject that are to be found in our literature. The 
earliest of these publications was The Columbarium, 
by John Moore. This appeared in 1735, being followed, 
in 1705, by an annoyrnous Treatise on Domestic Pigeons, 
and in 1802, by Daniel Girtin’s Complete Pigeon 
Fancier. There appeared, in 1801, A Treatise on the 
Almond Tumbler, by an un-named author, but who was 
a Mr. Windus, a London attorney, and now we have 
before us the whole combined in one volume, with a 
large amount of original notes, by John Matthews Eaton. 
His Treatise on the Art of breeding and managing the 
Almond Tumbler was published in 1851, and again, 
with the annotated work, in the present year, under the 
title of A Treatise on Pigeons. 
It is the best and fullest work which has yet appeared 
upon the subject, and with it are given a portfolio of 
portraits, beautifully drawn and coloured, the si/e of 
life, of the Almond Tumbler, Bold Head, Board, Black 
Mottle, Carrier, and Pouter. 
We consider it the best work that has hitherto ap¬ 
peared relative to Pigeons, because it is the accumulated 
experience of practical men arranged by one enthusi¬ 
astically fond of the birds concerning which he writes. 
This enthusiasm carries him beyond the bounds of sober 
judgment occasionally, but no reader will consider this 
unpardonable, even although he goes the length of ad¬ 
miring an “ Almond Tumbler,” as the most beautiful 
of God’s creatures, with the exception of woman ! 
Mr. Eaton is not a practiced,writer, and, therefore, 
there is a freshness and raciness about his rambling 
that disarms criticism, and commands forgiveness, 
though he mingles Nelson, Peel, and Wellington, with 
Pouters, Croppers, and Tumblers, and hesitates not a 
moment to wander from the Dovecote to Wellington’s 
Funeral, the Crystal Palace, and even his father’s day 
of nativity! He is, in truth, the most vagrant of scribes 
—but there is a carelessness of rules, and an earnest¬ 
ness of purpose, that defies and disarms censure. It is 
rendered a very readable book by its imperfections, and 
we should be sorry to have it pruned into regularity. 
The general detail of management, and more es¬ 
pecially, perhaps, the mysteries of " cross-matching ,” 
and the selection of breeding-stock, with a view to the 
result desired in the progeny, are ably explained, with a 
liberality that is not always manifested by those in¬ 
dividuals to whom the designation of “ fancier" more 
properly belongs. The author, indeed, expresses ap¬ 
prehension that his endeavours to aid the novice in 
pigeon-breeding may be considered as an infringement 
of the brotherhood, but the higher, on this very ground, 
should be the award of merit and approbation. The 
feeling referred to existed among those to whom other 
birds, besides Pigeons, were an object of interest; and 
thus, had a Bantam fancier, some thirty years since, pro¬ 
duced such a volume explanatory of his favourite’s 
pedigree and management, less uncertainty would now 
prevail, though the author’s subsequent position among 
“ the gentlemen of the fancy” w'ould probably have 
been far from enviable. 
One great merit for which Mr. Eaton’s book deserves 
a position on the shelves of every pigeon-keeper arises 
from its value as a record for upwards of 100 years of 
the various standards and points of excellence in the 
different varieties. It is so far from being the ex parte 
statement of the views and prejudices of an individual, 
that authorities, past and present, pro and con, are fairly 
placed in review before the reader, to whom Mr. Eaton 
then explains the reasons on which his own judgment 
would be grounded. 
If we express a wish for any curtailment of the length 
to which the treatise has been prolonged, it proceeds 
from our belief that the more material portions of his 
work would thus have been more readily reached, and 
presented in a clearer form to the eye. Grammatical 
accuracy would have avoided many confused passages, 
and there are some few allusions to sacred names and 
subjects that are not introduced with the respect and 
reverence we should have desired. 
Should another edition be called for, such alterations 
and corrections would render the book still more 
generally popular. Essentially a practical work, it 
