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N compiling the following pages the Editor has endeavoured to produce a treatise that should not only furnish the amateur of Pigeons with a greater amount of practical information on the different varieties than is to be found in any previous volume, but also to treat the whole subject in a more scientific manner than had hitherto been attempted. Hence the introductory chapters on the structure of the Pigeon; the natural history of the Blue Rock Dove, from whence all our varieties have descended; the account of the origin of the different varieties, &c., &c. But whilst these topics have been discussed, full space has been devoted to the practical part of the subject, and the characteristics and management of the different varieties have been more fully described than has been done in any other book.

The original works in English on the subject of Pigeons are few in number. They include Moore's "Columbarium," which was published in 1735; the reprints of Moore, which appeared, with slight additions, as "The Treatise on Domestic Pigeons," 1765, and "The Complete Pigeon Fancier," aseribed to Girton, but which was originally advertised as having been written by William Thompson; and "The Treatise on the Almond Tumbler," published anonymously. From these works the remaining treatises have been in the main compiled. Eaton's Treatise is confessedly a reprint of Moore and the Treatise on the Almond Tumbler, with additional notes. The Rey. E. S. Dixon's "Doveeote and Aviary," and Mr. Selby's "Treatise on Pigeons," in the "Naturalist's Library," do not call for special notice; but the Editor must not omit to acknowledge his obligations to the valuable fugitive articles contributed by the late Mr. B. P. Brent to the Feild and the Poultry Chronicle. It may be stated, that whatever information he has taken from other writers has been in all cases acknowledged,