CHAP. IV.j RUNTS IN ITALY.-EFFECTS OF CROSSING. 97 nota is high; but Ecco! Signore, you have had a flask of the famous Montefiascone-il rè di vino !—and two Pigeons!" The reader must have another instance; all the better that it is not a modern one. 'Wee came home by the island of Nisida, some two miles in compasse, belonging to one gentleman, who in it keeps all creatures tame by force, haueing no way to get from him, in sight of Caprea, once the delight of Tiberius, and so under the mountain Pausilippo again, with torches in our hands, it being night before wee could reach it, which wee passed safely; the better by reason that the holy virgin is gouuernesse of this cauern, and hath a chappell dedicated to her in the middle of it. By this time you must coniecture wee had a good stomach to our supper, which wee made of pigeons, the best heare without controuersy in the world, as big as pullets."* Notwithstanding the disproportion of size and incongruity of habits, Runts breed freely with other domestic Pigeons. One of my cock Runts mated with a Bald-pate: all their offspring, except one bird, resembled their father entirely, and their mother not at all. Those were all eaten, so we did not see what their young would turn out to be. Another male Runt mated with a Nun, with like result; all conventual character disappeared from the offspring, and the illegitimate family suffered extinction in a pie. Mr. James Kemp had a hybrid between a Brown Runt and a White Fantail, in which the fan tail was quite obliterated. The bird had no brown feathers, being principally white: so that it resembled neither * Mr. Edward Browne to Mr. Craven, 1664. H parent. Which was male and which female I am unable to state. It was, however, larger than ordinary-sized Pigeons. 'The TRUMPETER," says the Treatise, " is a bird much about the size of a Laugher (some sort of Runt ?), and very runtishly made; they are generally pearl-ey'd, black-mottled, very feather-footed and leg'd, turn-crown'd like the Nun, and sometimes like a Finnikin, but much larger, which are reckoned the better sort, as being more melodious; but the best characteristic to know them, is a tuft of feathers growing at the root of the beak; and the larger this tuft is, the more they are esteemed: the reason of their name is from their imitating the sound of a trumpet after playing; the more salacious they are, the more they will trumpet; therefore, if you have a mind to be often entertained with their melody, you must give them plenty of hemp-seed, otherwise they will seldom trumpet much, except in the spring, when they are naturally more salacious than usual." It seems more probable that the Trumpeter took its name from its military air: the helmet-like turn of feathers at the back of the head, the booted legs, and the fierce moustache at the base of the bill, give it quite a soldierlike appearance. I have not heard much in their "trumpetings" that differs greatly from the cooing of other Runts (for such they may be considered to be): perhaps the inspiration at the end of the coo may be a little more sonorous. But Pliny's description (lib. x. 52) is applicable to all domestic Pigeons. "In all, the song, similar and the same, is completed in a trine verse, besides a groaning conclusion. In winter they are mute, in spring vocal." A well-grown moustache is the point CHAP. IV.] ARCHANGEL PIGEONS CHARACTERISTICS. 99 Occasion which the amateur is advised most strongly to insist upon. Good Trumpeters are not common. ally they are met with pure white. The ARCHANGEL PIGEON is not mentioned in any treatise on the subject that I have met with: nor can I ascertain whether it owes its name to having been originally brought to us from the Russian port, or via Archangel from some other quarter, as Tartary or India. My first glimpse of the bird was at Knowsley; and I have since, through the liberal kindness of the Earl of Derby, become possessed of a pair from those. His lordship had them from the Messrs. Baker, of Chelsea. The colour The head, ing of these birds is both rich and unique. neck, and fore part of the back and body, is chestnut, or copper-colour, with changeable hues in different lights. The tail, wings, and hinder parts of the body are of a sort of blue-black; but many of the feathers on the back and shoulders are metallic and iridescent- a peculiarity not usual in other domestic Pigeons. The chestnut and blueblack portions of the bird do not terminate abruptly, but are gently shaded into each other. There is a darker bar at the end of the tail. The iris is very bright orangered the feet clean and unfeathered, and bright red. Archangel Pigeons have a turn of feathers at the back of the head very similar to that of the Trumpeter, or to Aldrovandi's woodcuts of his Columba Cypria. It is the colouring rather than the form which so specially distinguishes them. Their size is very much that of the Rock Dove. It is curious, that of two Archangel Pigeons sent me by a Yorkshire friend, one had the "turn" at the back of the head, and the other was smooth-headed, or rather smooth-occiputed; and the young they have produced, when two have been reared, have mostly, if not always, been one "turned " and one smooth-pated bird, exactly as their parents. The older Ornithologists furnish no hint of Archangel Pigeons, that we have been able to find. A cock of this kind is now assiduously courting one of our cream-coloured Tumblers; but I am unable to describe the result of their crossing with other domestic breeds, which they doubtless will do. They are sufficiently prolific to be kept as stock birds; but they are at present too valuable, either as presents or for exchange, to be consigned to the hands of the cook. Still it is with the higher rather than the lower class of Pigeon-fanciers that they are in much request. Bigoted Tumbler-breeders and panting blowers-up of Powters will look on a pair of glowing Archangels with almost the same contemptuous glance that they would bestow on a parcel of "Duffers," or dovehouse Pigeons, packed up to be shot at for a wager. ous. 66 NUNS are dear little creatures. The former breed belongs to the "gravel eyes," these are pleasing instances of the "pearl eye," the iris being delicately shaded from pink into white. Their colouring is vari"The most beautiful specimens," says Temminck, are those which are black, but have the quill feathers and the head white: they are called Nonnains-Maurins.” But the most usual sort, and exceedingly pretty birds they are, are what Buffon styles coquille hollandais, or Dutch shell Pigeons, "because they have, at the back of their head, reversed feathers, which form a sort of shell. They are also of short stature. They have the head black, the tip (the whole?) of the tail and the ends of the wings (quill feathers) also black, and all the |