_Sub-race II. Pigeon Cygne and Pigeon Bagadais of Boitard and Corbié_
(Scanderoon of French writers).--I kept two of these birds alive,
imported from France. They differed from the first sub-race or true
Scanderoon in the much greater length of the wing and tail, in the beak
not being so long, and in the skin about the head being more
carunculated. The skin of the neck is red; but the naked patches on the
wings are absent. One of my birds measured 38½ inches from tip to tip
of wing. By taking the length of the body as the standard of
comparison, the two wings were no loss than 5 inches longer than those
of the rock-pigeon! The tail was 6¼ inches in length, and therefore 2¼
inches longer than that of the Scanderoon,--a bird of nearly the same
size. The beak is longer, thicker, and broader than in the rock-pigeon,
proportionally with the size of body. The eyelids, nostrils, and
internal gape of mouth are all proportionally very large, as in
Carriers. The foot, from the end of the middle to end of hind toe, was
actually 2.85 inches in length, which is an excess of .32 of an inch
over the foot of the rock-pigeon, relatively to the size of the two
birds.
_Sub-race III. Spanish and Roman Runts_.--I am not sure that I am right
in placing these Runts in a distinct sub-race; yet, if we take
well-characterized birds, there can be no doubt of the propriety of the
separation. They are heavy, massive birds, with shorter necks, legs,
and beaks than in the foregoing races. The skin over the nostrils is
swollen, but not carunculated; the naked skin round the eyes is not
very wide, and only slightly carunculated; and I have seen a fine
so-called Spanish Runt with hardly any naked skin round the eyes. Of
the two varieties to be seen in England, one, which is the rarer, has
very long wings and tail, {144} and agrees pretty closely with the last
sub-race; the other, with shorter wings and tail, is apparently the
_Pigeon Romain ordinaire_ of Boitard and Corbié. These Runts are apt to
tremble like Fantails. They are bad flyers. A few years ago Mr.
Gulliver[285] exhibited a Runt which weighed 1 lb. 14 oz.; and, as I am
informed by Mr. Tegetmeier, two Runts from the south of France were
lately exhibited at the Crystal Palace, each of which weighed 2 lbs. 2½
oz. A very fine rock-pigeon from the Shetland Islands weighed only 14½
oz.
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