CHAP. IV.] COMPARISON OF BREEDS. 147 The reader may here be disposed to ask, which is the most advisable sort of Pigeon to keep; to which we reply that tastes differ; please yourself without consulting others. If handsome, court-yard, table-birds are desired, we should much be disposed to recommend the larger breeds. But Runts, for some reason which is not very clear, are held in but little esteem in England. Fanciers disregard them because they are neither elegant in shape, beautiful in feather, nor pleasing in flight. Their size ought to recommend them for economical purposes, unless our climate, so unlike that of their native birth-place, the shores of the Mediterranean, is unfavourable to their profitable increase. But their great size makes them remarkable ornaments to the aviary, and their history, as far as we can guess at it, ought to attract the attention of the naturalist. "The Leghorn Runt," says the Treatise on Domestic Pigeons, "is a stately large Pigeon, some of them seven inches, or better; in legs, close feathered; and firm in flesh, extremely broad-chested, and very short in the back; he carries his tail, when he walks, somewhat turned up, like a Duck's; but when he plays, he tucks it down; his neck is longer than any other Pigeon's, which he carries bending, like a Goose or a Swan. [Some of these particulars show an approach to the Fantails.] He is Goose-headed, and his eye lies hollow in his head, with a thin skin round it much like the Dutch Tumblers, but broader; his beak is very short for so large a bird, with a small wattle (cere?) on it, and the upper chap a little bending over the under. Mr. Moore says they are a very tender bird, but I must beg leave to dissent from that opinion of them, having kept them several winters. in a little shed or room, one side of which was entirely open, and exposed to the easterly winds, with no other fence but a net, which kept them confined. Care should be taken of their young ones, for they rear but few in the season, if left to bring them up themselves; therefore it would be most proper to shift their eggs under a Dragoon, or some other good nurse, remembering to give them a young one to feed off their soft meat; if this method be pursued, they will breed very well. “I have had a hen of the Leghorn breed that weighed two pounds two ounces avoirdupois weight; and have killed of their young ones which, when on the spit, were as large as middling spring fowls. It should be observed that these, and all other Runts, increase in bulk, till they are three or four years old. As to their feathers, they are various, but the best that I have seen were either white, black, or red-mottled. Leghorn Runts are more valued than any other sort of Runts, though there is a vast difference in them; some of them being very bad ones, though brought from Leghorn." There does not appear to be any great distinction between the Leghorn, Spanish, and Roman Runts. Some of the latter are so big and heavy that they can hardly fly, which circumstance, if not the result of domestication, would account for their disappearance in a wild state. The Runt was well known to Aldrovandi. He gives a woodcut of it, rude, but characteristic, and with the tail famously tucked up. The Trumpeter belongs to that family of extra-sized Pigeons, the Runts, which are so little valued in this country, although specimens, when to be met with, are rarely cheap. It is a bird which many would call ugly, but is of striking appearance, from being so much larger than the Pigeons CHAP. IV.] COMPARISON OF BREEDS. 149 usually seen, as well as from its thickly-feathered feet and legs, and the military cut of its head. I quite believe that it received its title of Trumpeter rather on account of the helmet-like crest at the back of the head, and the tuft of feathers at the base of the beak, which have very much the air of well-curled mustachios, than because its coo is specially sonorous or brazen. May not the word Trumpeter be a corruption of the Italian Tronfo, or Runt? Temminck includes the Trumpeter in his brief account of the Pigeon Romain, or Runt, the Columba hispanica of Latham. He says, "Some of these are found rough-footed, with very long feathers on their toes, which seem to incommode the bird in its movements; others are tufted, the only difference being in the feathers of the occiput, which are turned and set up." These have great claims on our favour from their classical associations: Turbits, Nuns, and Tumblers are both pretty and profitable; but the Pigeon of greatest interest, a pure flock of which is almost an aristocratical appendage to a mansion, is the bird which stands at the head of the following chapter. The Blue Rock Dove.-Varro's account. - Distinguished from Dovehouse Pigeons.-Disposition.-Experiment.-Gregariousness.-Crossing with Carriers. -Less kept than formerly.-Maritime haunts.-Colonel Napier.-Rock Pigeons in Sutherland.-Differ in habits from Fancy Pigeons.-Characteristic plumage. -Productiveness.-Quality of flesh.-Dovehouse Pigeon.-Indian Rock Pigeon. -Mr. Blyth's account.-Columba affinis.-Question of distinctness.-Pigeon matches.-Apology.-Numbers shot.-Pigeon-shooting in France.-Temperature of the bird.-Value as nurses.-The Collared Turtle.-Native haunts.Disposition.-How far domestic.-Escapades.-Food.-Pairing.-Nesting and incubation.-Education of the young.-Severe discipline.- Watchfulness.Voices. Interesting pets.-Plumage and varieties.-Hybrids.-Heralds of Peace. -The Irish Dove. WHEN there is no good standard translation of an author whose testimony is of importance on any dis CHAP. V.] VARRO'S ACCOUNT. 151 puted point, it is better to quote the passage in its original words than to incur any suspicion of having given a weak or warped rendering, after the example of Chaunteclere's explanation to the faire Damoiselle Pertelote, as related by Chaucer: - "For al so siker as In principio (Madame, the sentence of this Latine is, Woman is mannes joye and mannes blis.)" We therefore quote here a few sentences from Varro, because two thousand years ago he recorded some peculiarities in the races of Domestic Pigeons (and other passages of similar import are to be found in other ancient authors) which appear to us to be opposed to, if not irreconcileable with, the theories of some modern naturalists. “Si unquam περιστεροτροφεῖον constituisses, has tuas esse putares, quamvis feræ essent. Duo enim genera earum in EgσTεporgopeia esse solent: Unum agreste, ut alii dicunt, saxatile, quod habetur in turribus, ac columinibus villæ, a quo appellatæ columbæ, quæ propter timorem naturalem summa loca in tectis captant; quo fit ut agrestes maxime sequantur turres, in quas ex agro evolant suapte sponte, ac remeant. Alterum genus illud columbarum est clementius, quod cibo domestico contentum intra limina januæ solet pasci; hoc genus maxime est colore albo; illud alterum agreste sine albo, vario. Ex his duabus stirpibus fit miscellum tertium genus fructûs causâ.”* This passage may be fairly translated thus :"If ever you should establish a Dovery, you would consider the birds your own, although they were wild. For two * Varro, iii. 7. |