THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
201 
July 25.] 
dish of May Duke Cherries; n clish of Marseillaise Figs; 
and a dish of good Grapes. 
PINE APPLES.—COLLECTIONS OP SIX. 
THE DOMESTIC PIGEON. 
GENERAL HISTORY OE PIGEONS. 
(Continuedfrom page 244,) 
1st Prize to Mr. Bray, gardener to E. Lousada, Esq, 
2nd Prize to Mr. G.McEwen, gardener to his Grace the 
Dnke of Norfolk. 
PROVIDENCE PINES.—SINGLE SPECIMENS. 
1st Prize to Mr. Fleming. Weight 7 lbs. 8 oz. This 
was a well-grown handsome-shaped fruit. 
BLACK PINES. 
1st Prize to Mr. Jackson, gardener to H. Beaufoy, 
Esq. 
RIPLEY QUEEN. 
1st Prize to Mrs. Bailey, 20, Belgrave-square. 
GRAPES. 
The black grapes were nearly all in good perfection, being 
fair sized bunches, large well-swelled berries, and of a good 
colour. White grapes were not so plentiful, and some hardly 
ripe. There were exhibited at least fifty dishes of all sorts. 
Five collections of 12 lbs. each were shown. 1st Prize for 
this class was awarded to Mr. Henderson, gardener to Sir G. 
Beaumont, Bart., of Coleorton Hall. 1st Prize (equal) to 
Mr. Venables, gardener to G. Solomon, Esq., Peckham 
live. They were Black Homburghs, and were really hand¬ 
some, well-ripened, and well-coloured fruit. 
THREE dishes of grapes of different kinds. 
1st Prize to Mr. Bennett, gardener to .T. Smith, Esq., 
Dulwich. The kinds were Black Hamburgh, Black Prince, 
and lioyal White Muscadiue. 
THREE DISHES OF BLACK GRAPES. 
1st Prize to Mr. Hohnes, gardener to E. Garrod, Esq., 
of Putney Heath. These were most excellent fruit, the 
berries were finely swelled, of a jet black colour, and the 
bunches were handsomely formed. 
MUSCAT OF ALEXANDRIA. 
1st Prize to Mr. Macintosh, gardener, Burghley House. 
WHITE FRONTIGNANS. 
1st Prize to Mr. Moffat, gardener to the Duke of New¬ 
castle. 
VINES IN POTS. 
1st Prize to Mr. Nortlicot, gardener to Miss Migan, 
Wan stead. 
PEACHES AND NECTARINES 
were excellent, and reflected great credit to the growers. 
1st Prize for four dishes to Mr. Turnbull. 
1st Prize for two dishes was awarded to Mr. Macintosh. 
cherries. 
1st Prize for a splendid dish of Purple genus, to Mr. 
Snow, gardener to Earl de Grey. 
melons. 
1st Prize to Mr. Barnes, gardener to H. Banbury, Esq., 
for Hybrid green flesh. 
strawberries 
were exhibited in great quantities, and in high perfection, 
both for size and colour. 
1st Prize (equal) to Mr. Lydiard, market gardener, Bath, 
and Mr. Kimberley, of Coventry. 
A prize was awarded to Mr. Ivison, for an interesting 
collection of Exotic fruit., consisting of Vanilla planifolia, 
Caricapapaya (thePapaw) , Myristica moschata (the Nutmeg), 
Xanthochymas tinctorius, and Physalis peruvianas (the Peru 
Cherry). A prize was also awarded to Mr. Bray, gardener 
to Baron Goldsmid, for a large tray of citrons, oranges, and 
lemons. ...... e 
Such is a very brief account of this grand exhibition ot 
fruit, the magnitude of which may he inferred from the fact, 
that the judges were not able to finish their laborious task 
till nearly 5 o’clock. , . . 
In all the departments (much against our inclination) our 
restricted space has obliged us to omit the names of many 
prize-takers, and an enumeration of their plants, flowers, and 
fruits. We regret this not only because it is information 
useful to country exhibitors, but because in gardening, as in 
all other arts, it is ever beneficial to inform even the humblest 
practitioner of tvliat is doing in the very highest departments. 
If Buffon had said that our dove-house pigeons, our mix¬ 
tures, and even some races of our dove-cot pigeons, descended 
originally from the wood-pigeon, he would not have found 
any one to contradict him. In short, the wood-pigeon only 
differs from the first in its colour, which is a little more 
brown. It is a migratory bird, whose migrations are periodi¬ 
cal; which is a sufficient proof that it is not a domestic 
pigeon rendered free. Its habits are quite different; it 
dwells in the most silent woods, roosts habitually, and builds 
its nest in hollow trees, which would appear to separate it 
altogether from our domestic pigeon; hut, as soon as this 
last abandons the dove-house to go and live in old towers 
and the holes of rocks, we quickly perceive in its manners 
and plumage the first step taken towards its regenera¬ 
tion. This pigeon is first called a runaway, so long as it 
only inhabits old buildings. Its posterity quickly becomes 
more obedient to the laws of nature, and will fly still farther 
from the presence of man and bondage ; it will seek in the 
solitary mountains an inaccessible hole in a rock, where it 
may, in peace and liberty, approach still closer the laws ot 
nature ; anil this is the rock-pigeon spoken of by authors. 
Being free from all fetters, and every strange impulsion, it 
will soon have regained that natural timidity which renders 
this species so fond of solitude. The facility with which 
reptiles and small voracious animals are able to surprise it 
and its young family in the rocks, will cause it uneasiness, j 
and oblige it to quit the place ancl penetrate into the heart . 
of the forest; it will then roost and build in hollow trees.. I 
This is what the ancient authors describe by the name of i 
the wild pigeon. But it has almost returned to its pure j 
origin; and if it did not retain, during two or three genera- > 
tions, some varied and different coloured feathers, it would 
no longer carry any marie of its former bondage, and would 
lie a true wood-pigeon. We see that it returns very easily to 
its pure origin, but when rendered captive by the hand of 
man, it degenerates with the same rapidity; its posterity will 
quickly pass through all the blendings that we have just 
described—if not in manners, at least in plumage. 
If all that we have just said did not prove, incontestably, 
that our dove-house pigeons and some mixtures are only 
wood-pigeons more or less changed, or, to speak in the 
language of the amateurs, more or less ameliorated by a 
long succession of ages, I would cite in support oi it a tact 
which I had just seen when I began this work. A person 
inhabiting the environs of Paris possesses a dove-cot near j 
a place where wood-pigeons abound; one of them has 
entered into his dove-cot and coupled with a.hen Mixture, 
and they have already produced several pairs of young 
pigeons, which do not differ in any respect from the 
deserters. Someone has assured me that a ring-dove has 
done the same thing, but the fact appears to me very 
doubtful, because this wild bird constantly refuses to couple 
even with the stock dove, besides, its specific differences are 
incontestable in its size, form, colour, and manners. 
Some varieties, then, of the dove-cot and the doveliouse 
descend from the wood-pigeon. But how to explain the 
enormous difference which exists, for example, between the 
Turkey-cock Pigeon aud the Waited Pigeon (Bagadais),— 
how to persuade oneself that these two birds, so unlike in 
their form, their size, and all tlieir. characteristics, descend 
from the same stock, the wood-pigeon, which they both 
differ from almost as much as they do from each other’, 
this is a much more difficult question to resolve, and one 
that Buffon liinfself has positively contradicted. After having 
advanced the opinion that we have just transcribed, it would 
appear we must feel this difficulty still more, and retract it, 
he says, in the History of the Ring-dove—“ As this bird is 
much larger than the wood-pigeon, and both are very like 
the domestic pigeon, one might believe that the small races 
of our dove-cot pigeons proceed from the stock-dove and the 
larger from the ring-dove, the more so as the. ancients were 
in 'the habit of rearing ring-doves, of fattening and multi¬ 
plying them; it may be, then, that our large dove-cot 
pigeons, and particularly the large rough footed, came ori¬ 
ginally from the ring-dove; the only thing which would 
appear to contradict this idea is, that our small domestic 
I 
