coloured line of the great' wing-coverts; lower back and
rump white; upper tail-cöverts slate-grey; tail-feathers
twelve in number, a shade lighter, with a broad terminal
dark leaden band, sometimes paler at the extreme tip ; chin
bluish-grey; throat purple and green; breast, and all the
under surface of the body grey ; under wing-coverts and
axillaries white ; under tail-coverts' slate-grey ; tarsi and
feet red; claws dark brown.' The total length ofTfife male'
is fourteen inches; from the carpal joint to the end'of- the
wing nine inches; the first quilbfeather a little shorter than
the second which is the longest. The females are smaller
than the males, and their colours, especially on the neck and
shoulders, are lees brilliant.
The young, which are" a t first-*covered'with loose'yellow
down, are, when fledged, of a 'dnliëï^ colour, but otherwise
nifflilftr to' the old birds, with the' exception of the
metallic tints on the' neck: even then their white 'rump
* easily’ distinguishes- " them * from the-young*'of Hhe 'Stock
Dove, and at the "first* moult' they acquire“- their full
pldmage.~ " _ ^
It hardly comes within the-Scope of this work to > enter
into details ‘respecting M | domesticated varieties sprung
from this “stock. '-1 Many of them, as Darwin has remarked,
would, if found wild, have' beén ranked ad distinct species,
whilst not a1 few* present even structural peculiarities/ which
would certainly have -led ornithologish#tb;'plaCd thenif In different
genera^. A' peculiar interest', 'Koyévgr;' attaches’ritMf I
ifo-tbej Ho»Sig Pigeon,' one -éf^'thpr least removed from'--the
original stock, and often .erroneously ^hailed the'Carrier.
The ^practice of using Pigeétó forMe cOnveyance of messa%©k
is of: great' antiquity/"■and Dr";bDeith Adams (Ibis-, 1864,
pt. ^ states that oh 'one ofi'thévwaRs”-.óf the Tèmpié^ef I
f,Med|fetfH'abóVÏs a'sdppture of the time of Rameses IH;,
éid. 12fi7f k%xCsentihg that monarches having Just assumed
ther down pf'Upper and ^Ihwér-Egyptrwhilst- a priest' in |
the regal prpc^nbh -ih 'Sending out four Pigeon sTo convey
the news abroad, shéwingTh’at -even then they^ete^tfsedTor
this purpose.' The- .following -observations respecting-the*
latest performances of the Homing Pigeon will," therefore,- be,
read with interest; especially as they proceed from that
great authority, Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier, the originator of the
recent utilization of this variety by the Trinity House-
“ The variation of the Rock Dove in a state, of-domestication
is capable of being carried out to a very remarkable
degree by careful selection of brood-stock. Not-only can
the colours of the original species he varied, or even their
arrangement reversed, but strange modifications can be perpetuated;
such as thé production of frills ^r-hoods,^ and an
increase in the number of thé tail-feathers, varying frOm the
normal twelve up to forty. ‘ Structural alterations-are also1
effected, as in the rounded head of the short-faced' ^u-mbler^
or the elongated b'pak of the fancy iCarrjqL.. The, Jitter-
breed Is frequently confounded with the' Homing, pr ' Voyap
geur Pigeon, which is only altered from- the wild original ;by
a larger cerebral development, greater 'size and -mUs'cular
power, and an extraordinary increase -in the breadth ■ of-the'
primary flight-feathers of the wihg.’ ~
- “ Careful training, and breeding from thé best specimens,
have greatly increased the faculty that these Homing birds
have for returning to their lofts from long distances. The
system of beginning with a few miles, and- increasing until
fifty and even,.a hundred miles a^e taken afca stage, causes
the -kg» of the weaker anjf, tlrn intelligent birds, and the
perpetuatiqn of the best of, the race. The, result has been
remarkable. Some thirty years since it was rarely the. case
that in the Belgian pigeon-races of 30Q miles, even a few
birds returned home on the day of/ their liberation, hut now
it is unusual, in good weather, for any of the^prizes in a 500
miles race, not to be won on the very, game day that the
birds are flown. Thus in the great Belgian national rape of
the present year (|8.8^), which took plape. from M^rpenx,
south of*Bordeaux, to Brussels, a .distance ofi|510gpiile£i,
1,674 birds were liberated at 4.12 a .m .,, - the wind being
S.W., and the weather clear,-the first bird reached* heme at
4.37 p .m. ; hig, speed having'béeh' about 1,300 yjprds per
minute. One hundred and fifty-five birds were hack the