The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-15 00:00:00

THE PHILO-PERISTERON SOCIETY.

The annual show of birds by members of what,
in plain English, might be called the Pigeon
Friendly Society, was held on Tuesday at Free-
masons' Hall. These exhibitions of marked varie-
ties, produced from one common stock, are interest-
ing to the physiologist, and have indeed materially
helped to settle the much-vexed questions of species.
The display was excellent as a whole, the chiefly
remarkable fact being that those particular
breeds which have been growing scarcer every
year were best represented. The beautiful pen
of turbits, sent from York by that enthusiastic
columbarian, Mr. Thackeray, and the two
pens of trumpeters, shown respectively by
the same gentleman and Mr. Hedley, secretary of
the society, are cases in point. The almond tum-
blers were in extraordinary force, the crack pens of
the room being furnished by these birds, exhibited
severally by Mr. Lucy and Mr. Merck. The only
three black mottles in the room, however, were
shown by Mr. Esquilant. Mr. Hedley's barbs were,
as usual, first-rate ; and Mr. Volckman, a new
member of the society, exhibited a pair of
pouters deserving special mention, among
several birds of great merit in this class. The
carriers, which, like the domestic footmen and
a few other things in this world, may be divided
into two different classes, the useful and the
ornamental, worthily occupied a considerable
space of the show. Of the ornamental carriers, bred
to a refinement of ophthalmia and an Inca-like pride
of enervation, the most wonderfully artificial were
those of Mr. Crossley, of Leeds, Mr. Date, Mr.
Hedley, and Mr. Else. The very opposite kind of
birds to these were the three large and two small
pens of useful carriers, shown by Mr. Hudson,
among them being several renowned performers of
long flights. By one of them the distance of 300
miles—from Antwerp to London, that is to say—
was accomplished in four hours and twenty minutes.
By two others the journey from Ostend was per-
formed in company. It is a noteworthy fact that,
though carrier-pigeons are of ten known to fly
from London to Ostend, few are recorded to
have flown from Ostend to London. The clear
Belgian air and wide expanse of flat country seem
to have attractions for these winged couriers ; and
even these two distinguished voyagers in the ser-
vice of Mr. Hudson, when started by the station-
master at Ostend, at 8 o'clock on a bright morning
last August, headed first for the interior, and twice
took their way inland, far out of sight, before they
finally passed over Ostend and flew straight across
the Channel.

Mr. Esquilant, chairman of the society, contri-
buted several fine pens of birds, the most com-
mendable being his perfect specimens of that scarce
and rapidly diminishing breed, the bald-head.
His blue dragons were also praiseworthy, though
their clean shapes and bright appearance yielded
the palm to Mr. Percival's adjoining pen. The
jacobins exhibited by Mr. Morris were all good,
and the contrast of colours well maintained. Of
Mr. Thackeray's admirable pen of turbits, number-
ing many of his prize birds, we have already spoken
—and we may here add that a very good pen of
blue and silver specimens of this breed were show❑
by Mr. Else. The least meritorious birds in the
room were, perhaps, the fantails, though a few
pretty representatives of this elegant white breed
of pigeons might have been picked out of a
rather indifferent pen. The exhibition was well
attended during the hours to which it was judi-
ciously limited.

EARLY LAmBING.:--An ewe on Mr. Laycock's
Seghill Colliery Farms dropped a flue lamb on Thursday.
This is the fourth successive year that the same ewe has
lambed early in January, three years single lambs, and
one year twins.—Newcastle Chronicle.