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cularly by the great pilgrim caravan to Mecca; and if the conjecture be correct, it may be supposed to have been among the provisions stored up in the besieged city, and sold at the extravagant price mentioned in the text. It is clear that if dove's dung be really intended, it could not be used as an article of food, and then we are thrown upon its use as manure. This use is best exemplified in Persia. form such essential articles of food in some warm climates, that vast quantities are consumed, and in besieged towns persons who have been rather delicately brought up have been known to pine away and die for the want of such essential provisions, even when corn was abundant. On this point, Mr. Morier observes, the dung of doves is the dearest manure which the Persians use, and as they apply it almost entirely to the rearing of melons, it is probably on that account that the melons of Ispahan are so much finer than those of other cities. The revenue of a pigeon-house is about a hundred tomauns per annum; and the great value of this dung which rears a fruit that is indispensable to the existence of the natives during the great heats of summer, will probably throw some

light on that passage in Scripture, where in the famine of Samaria, the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung was sold for five pieces of silver.' (Second Journey, p. 141.) We think that the alternatives lie between this explanation and that which Bochart has given, although neither of them seems entirely free from grounds of objection."

If the cities of the east, such as Samaria, resembled modern London and Paris, the utility of manure for the growth of vegetables would be out of all question, but such was not the case. Detached houses, with surrounding gardens,-large spaces, used for the rearing of culinary vegetables-streets rather resembling lanes than the streets of a European city of the present day, and the whole surrounded by a wall of brick, or mud and stones, with towers at given distances, such was, and such is still a city of Western Asia; and when the uncouth catapult, the sling, and the bow were the only projectile weapons, these rude fortifications were more difficult to be carried than a town of modern Europe would now be (Vauban himself having fortified it) by a few thousand men with artillery, and the arts of modern warfare.

We may here leave the common dovecote, or farm-yard pigeon, and proceed to take a brief survey of the principal varieties, some of them of great antiquity, which naturalists generally agree have resulted from long culture in a state of domestication. These varieties are extremely numerous, and by inter-crossing, others are from time to time produced, to the delight or disappointment of the fancier, as he may succeed or fail in the accomplishment of his wishes.

The CARRIER, or HORSEMAN.-We do not separate between these birds, because we know of no difference between them: at all events, if any originally existed, it has become lost, and we believe the terms carrier and horseman are by most fanciers of the present day used synonymously. The carrier exceeds most other varieties of domestic pigeons in size; and is remarkable for the elegance of its shape. It is among pigeons, what the high- | bred racer is among horses, and has been long celebrated for its rapidity of flight. It is evidently of eastern origin, and was known to the ancients.

The plumage of the carrier is close and firm, and the quill feathers remarkably rigid; the

colour is black, blue, or dun,-birds of the latter tint being highly prized, if perfect in other qualities. The neck is long and slender, the shoulders wide apart and strongly knit, and the breast muscular. The eye is animated, with the iris of a fiery red, a rosette or wide rose-like circle of white fungous skin, surrounds the eye, and is even elevated (in mature birds) above the level of the skull. This circle, about the size of a shilling, should be uniform,-free from irregularities, and well developed. The beak is long,* straight, and stout, especially at the base, which is surrounded by a large mass of white fungous skin, greatly elevated above the base of the upper mandible, and advancing on the forehead. This protuberance or wattle should be regularly formed, rise boldly, and spread broadly across the beak. The head is long. and narrow, and the skull should be flat or even depressed on the top, and of contracted breadth between the elevated rosettes. For perfect birds, great prices are demanded; and

gape.

From an inch and a quarter to an inch and a half, along the

The fungous excrescence is only a development of the soft pulpy skin at the base of the upper mandible in the ordinary pigeons, where the nostrils are situated.

we certainly think that of all the varieties of the domestic pigeon none are so worthy of attention by those whose inclination leads them to the innocent amusement of cultivating fine races of the feathered tribes reclaimed by man.

Dr. Kitto, in his Physical History of Palestine, notices the carrier pigeon as being still kept in Syria, and we know that from very ancient times, it has been employed in the east as a rapid and not to be intercepted conveyer of intelligence. Bochart has collected numerous authorities on this subject, both in Greece and Syria. The following passage is from the pen of an accomplished zoologist in the Penny Magazine. "In one of his odes Anacreon has immortalized it, (the carrier pigeon,) as the bearer of epistles. Taurosthenes sent to his expectant father, who resided in Ægina, the glad tidings of his success in the olympic games, on the very day of his victory. Pliny speaks of the communication kept up between Hirtius and Decimus Brutus at the siege of Mutina, (Modena.) What availed Antony, the trench, and the watch of the besiegers, what availed the nets stretched across the river, while the messenger was cleaving the air? The crusaders employed them,

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