26 

(For Fanciers’ Journal.) 
THE PIGEON FANCY. 
The pigeon fancy is assuming vast proportions in the 
United States. Within the last twenty years the buying, 
selling, and importation of pigeons has caused to spring up 
a number of business houses devoted entirely to the purpose 
of supplying the demand for such pets. Germany and 
England are the countries from which the largest number 
of birds are exported. The love for pets evinced by the 
people of both nations has produced, within the last five 
centuries, numberless combinations of colors, and points of 
greater interest, in this class of the feathered tribe. Hach 
of these people has, however, had its own peculiar fancy. 
The Germans, living so near the birth-place of fine art, have 
devoted their time and skill to the production of brilliancy 
of coloring, or odd contrasts of colors, and the toy birds have 
issued from their hands in every conceivable combination of 
the hues natural to pigeons, or striking to the eye. The 
English, on the contrary, turned their attention to shape, or 
whatever was odd and curious, and by long selection and 
careful breeding have obtained what are called the high 
fancy birds, namely, the English Pouter, Carrier, and Al- 
mond Tumbler, or, as it should be called, the Short-faced 
Tumbler. We Americans should be thankful that those two 
nations devoted themselves to such opposite purposes. Be- 
tween them they have worked to our advantage. We now 
have all the varieties ready-made to our hands; whereas, if 
both had worked towards the same desires, there would have 
been a much shorter and more imperfect list to choose from. 
We do not propose to discuss the probable origin of the dif- 
ferent varieties, as Dundreary says, ‘that is one of those 
things a fellow never can find out,’’ and if he did, what good 
would it do him? 
That the toy birds mostly originated in Germany is conceded, 
and that the high fancies were perfected in England is beyond 
doubt, though some say the name Almond is but a contrac- 
tion of Allmand, signifying German, therefore it must be of 
German origin. Supposing it was, it did not become short- 
faced until it passed through generations in England, and 
we cannot say much for its surety of coloring even at this 
late day. 
But we must return to the fanciers here. As a nation 
grows older its inhabitants become more settled ; instead of 
the hurry and push of new settlements, its towns present 
the appearance of stability, order, and ease. Its habitations 
collect more of the accessories of old homes. The people 
move more leisurely, and pets of al] kinds make themselves 
perfectly happy in the homes provided by their contented 
owners. One of the surest signs of content and ease is an 
old dove-cote, with numerous and tame inhabitants. 
Our country is growing old, and many symptoms of its 
age are showing themselves by the fancies that its people 
are finding time to enjoy; that is, its people upon the eastern 
seaboard, for upon the western shore all is yet new and 
agitated. 
These fancies express themselves in various ways. A man 
must have leisure to enjoy a fancy, or money to pay for it, 
and either presupposes a state of society where one does not 
have to work himself to death to obtain a living, or one 
where, mayhap, fortunes are accumulated, and hereditarily 
descend to the one who possesses the fancy. Therefore, when 
we observe that fancies for pets are rife in a community, we 

FANCIERS’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 

may know that the community is emerging from barbarism, 
and reaching towards the humanizing and cultivated in- 
terests. 
When aman emerges by his own efforts from poverty, the 
first thing he does after making his fortune is to indulge 
himself in little fancies. He buys small pictures and good 
furniture, books find their way into his house, but when he 
finds time to rest entirely from his labors, and cultivate his 
esthetic feelings, the commoner things are banished, and 
none but fine specimens of art or literature give him plea- 
sure. Asa self-made man once remarked to us, ‘‘he grows 
away from the minor things that once contented him, and, 
his fortune established, inclination and time are his to indulge 
in anything that cultivates or increases happiness, chief 
among which is the fancy for pets.’’ 4 
Thus we see the life of man is but an epitome of the life 
of a nation. As soon as the one has a living assured fancies 
crop out, as soon as the other is sufficiently old to have in- 
ternal economies established, and a certain amount of leisure 
divided among its people, hen fevers, horse fevers, and pigeon 
fevers run their course. The hen fever or fancy is a thing 
of the past; it combined the useful with the ornamental. 
It was thought in our practical country to be showing too 
much weakness to give way entirely to a desire for the orna- 
mental, and many a lover of the beautiful covered his shame- 
facedness with expressions concerning the great number of 
eggs, &c., which were to balance the account, useful versus 
ornamental. We wonder how many “ got their money 
back ’’—no true fancier we will venture to say. And why? 
A fancier gives up to his fancy because of the enjoyment it 
yields him. When he wishes to make by it, his dreams be- 
come connected with dollars and cents, then it is a business 
and not a fancy, and the love for that massive Brahma, ele- 
gant game, or exquisite almond, is adulterated by, ‘‘ How 
much will I sell him for?” 
In speaking of the hen fever as a thing of the past, we 
do not mean that it has passed away. No, no, on the con- 
trary it still rages, but it commenced suddenly about thirty 
years ago, just as the pigeon fancy began within the last few 
years. 
The pigeon fancy is ornamental. It is of the same class 
as those of the florist, the artist, or the musician. There is 
no more usé in it than in them, yet who denies the great 
worth of either or all. A constant communion with these 
fancies is known to be the surest mode of refining and tem- 
pering the indifferent clay of which mankind is made. 
The pigeon fancy is peculiarly adapted to humanize the 
rougher elements of our natures. The quietness necessary 
in the loft acts by imperceptible degrees upon the one in 
charge of the birds. Gentleness becomes a distinguishing 
trait in his nature, and he forms habits that accompany him 
into the ordinary routine of life. 
It is noticeable that children, especially babies, know by 
instinct the fancier. They will leave their mother’s arms 
and go to him when nothing can draw them to others. How 
many a rough, boisterous boy has been toned down by the 
present of a pair of birds, and more than one man has grown 
to be a more devoted father and purer husband by reason of 
his love for pigeons. 
We advise any lady looking for a husband never to let a 
fancier slip; their motto seems to be ‘ Let us have peace.”’ 
The most henpecked man we know is an old gentleman eighty 
years old, who steals off to his loft to sit among his pigeons, 
and escape from his wife’s tongue. What a glorious thing 
