the same. Now from any part of the circle, let it perceive an object, which while performing its circles at home, has caught its eye, it has at once a clue to the right direction; that object attained, a succession of others familiar to it are rapidly passed, till its home greets its keen and long-surveying powers of vision.

This idea struck us forcibly when viewing the prospect from Mont Cassel, near St. Omer. Though this conical mount, once a Roman military occupation, is of no very great elevation, we saw an amphitheatre around us of from fifty to sixty miles in nearly every direction, and across the Manche the white cliffs of the Kentish coast. If a long-sighted pigeon had soared above us, say at the elevation of one mile (its home being in London) we feel assured that its old familiar land-marks would have been at once discerned by it, and have been guide-posts, to direct it in its homeward flight.

Audubon speaking of the passenger pigeon of North America, says that specimens have been killed in the neighbourhood of New York, with their crops full of rice, which must have been collected in the fields of Georgia and

Carolina, those districts being the nearest, in which they could have collected a supply of that grain. The swiftness of the carrier pigeon is equal to that of the passenger pigeon, and is very great, but then much time is lost while it mounts and makes its circles of observation, before it starts fairly on its course. Perhaps the average rapidity is fifty or sixty miles an hour; but it can wing its way still more expeditiously, when eager to regain its home, and no very great difficulties have to be encountered. M. Antoine informs us that a gentleman residing in Cologne, called by business to Paris, laid a considerable wager that he would give information to his friends of his safe arrival, within three hours. The distance is a hundred leagues; the accomplishment of the object seemed impossible, and the wager was at once accepted. He had brought from Cologne two carrier pigeons, which had nestlings, and arriving at Paris at ten in the morning, he tied a letter to each bird and despatched them both at eleven precisely. One of these pigeons arrived at Cologne at five minutes past one o'clock, and in nine minutes afterwards the other came in ; hence, supposing their flight to have been

direct from an elevation rapidly attained, it could not have been much below the ratio of a hundred and forty or fifty miles an hour. This was, indeed, an extraordinary instance of speed, to which we do not know a parallel, unless Montagu be correct, who estimates the flight of the Peregrine falcon, when pursuing its quarry, at the rate of one hundred and fifty

miles an hour.

THE DRAGOON, OR DRAGON.-This variety presents, in an inferior degree, the characters of the carrier, and appears to be a cross breed between that variety, and the tumbler or ordinary dove-cote runt. It is smaller and lighter in contour than the carrier, with the carunculated skin at the base of the beak and around the eyes less developed, but with the general figure similar. It is a bird of great powers of flight, but though rapid for short distances, it wants the power of muscular endurance requisite for the swift accomplishment of very long journeys.

THE POUTER. This large pigeon, formerly highly valued by fanciers, and bred with much care, and no little expense, is originally the product of a cross between the dragoon and the old Dutch cropper, so called from the

development of its crop; but which, in form and proportions, had little to recommend it. All pigeons are capable of inflating their crop with air, and thus of distending it. In the pouter, the crop is remarkably capacious, and, when inflated, assumes an almost globular form, extending from the under mandible to the top of the chest. This vast inflation of the crop does not, in our eyes, add anything to the beauty of the bird, as it produces an appearance of distortion, while the bird in order to carry it with ease is obliged to carry itself upright, with the legs straight and stiff, in a line with the erect body. Some think this gives the bird a majestic air, but it seems to us to be a stiff unnatural strut. The pouter often measures eighteen inches in length from the point of the beak to the end of the tail; the legs, or tarsi, are long and covered with fine white down; the back is concave, and the tail large. The general colours are blue, rufous, or fawn, regularly pied with white; we have seen many of a pure white, but these are not preferred. In the arrangement of the markings, and in various minor details, pigeon fanciers find much to interest themselves; to us they appear un

worthy of serious attention. Two varieties of the pouter are respectively termed the Parisian pouter and the uploper; but of these we do not know that we have ever seen any specimens. The former is beautifully mottled and variegated.

THE BARB.-The name of this variety seems to indicate that it was originally brought from the north of Africa. It is a bird of remarkable appearance; there is a small carunIculated wattle at the base of the beak, which latter is short and thick, and a rather large naked circle of bright red spongy skin surrounds the eye; a short crest of prettily circled feathers generally ornaments the back of the head. The plumage is of a uniform black, occasionally dun.

THE FAN-TAIL.-Among the more curious varieties of the domestic pigeon must be enumerated the fan-tail or broad-tailed shaker. These appellations it acquires from the peculiarity of its tail, which is carried in a manner very similar to that of a common hen, but rather more expanded. In proportion to the size of the bird, it is also more ample, being composed of four and twenty feathers, and, in some cases, even six and thirty, instead of the