--Cut the steak into pieces about 3 inches square, and with it
line the bottom of a pie-dish, seasoning it well with pepper and salt.
Clean the pigeons, rub them with pepper and salt inside and out, and put
into the body of each rather more than 1/2 oz. of butter; lay them on
the steak, and a piece of ham on each pigeon. Add the yolks of 4 eggs,
and half fill the dish with stock; place a border of puff paste round
the edge of the dish, put on the cover, and ornament it in any way that
may be preferred. Clean three of the feet, and place them in a hole made
in the crust at the top: this shows what kind of pie it is. Glaze the
crust,--that is to say, brush it over with the yolk of an egg,--and bake
it in a well-heated oven for about 1-1/4 hour. When liked, a seasoning
of pounded mace may be added.

_Time_.--1-1/4 hour, or rather less. _Average cost_, 5s. 3d.

_Sufficient_ for 5 or 6 persons. _Seasonable_ at any time.

[Illustration: TUMBLER PIGEONS.]

TUMBLER PIGEONS.--The smaller the size of this variety, the
greater its value. The head should be round and smooth, the neck
thin, and the tail similar to that of the turbit. Highly-bred
birds of this variety will attain an elevation in their flight
beyond that of any other pigeons; and it is in seeing these
little birds wing themselves so far into the skies that the
fanciers take such delight. For four or five hours tumblers have
been known to keep on the wing; and it is when they are almost
lost to the power of human vision that they exhibit those
pantomimic feats which give them their name, and which are
marked by a tumbling over-and-over process, which suggests the
idea of their having suddenly become giddy, been deprived of
their self-control, or overtaken by some calamity. This
acrobatic propensity in these pigeons has been ascribed by some
to the absence of a proper power in the tail; but is nothing
more than a natural habit, for which no adequate reason can be
assigned. Of this variety, the Almond Tumbler is the most
beautiful; and the greater the variation of the colour in the
flight and tail, the greater their value.

[Illustration: RUNT PIGEONS.]

THE RUNT PIGEON.--This is generally esteemed among the largest
of the pigeon varieties, and being possessed of proportionate
strength, with a strong propensity to exercise it, they keep the
dovecot in a state of almost cont