Pigeon hunt

Pigeon hunting originated many years before our era and exists to this day. In the late XIX - early XX centuries in the city of London there were several special pigeon clubs, which were not limited to one sport, but also pursued scientific goals ^[1] ; in Russia, pigeon hunting, as a rule, does not go beyond the scope of fun ^[2] .

Russian pigeon hunting is divided into racing , aimed at developing and improving the flight of pigeons , and water , in which they achieve beauty and maintenance of the breed in pigeons, not caring about their flying ability ^[2] .

For hunting, two main breeds of pigeons are bred: pure and turmans . Pure pigeons descend from ordinary bluish pigeons and are divided into tin, white-belted, circle-shaped, oily, tigers, etc., differing from gray doves mainly in color and tenderness of forms. Thurman's colors are divided into black (rooks, checkmarks), white and red (hot and ribbon); From the breed of red turmans, the most valuable variety of “Moscow gray, or aquatic, turmans” originated. Without touching the latter, the description of which follows, the external distinguishing feature of all Turmans in general is that they are smaller, softer and lower than pure pigeons on their feet; the width of their head is equal to its length, the beak is tiny, similar in shape to a scythe nose, a white rim around the eyes ^[2] .

In flight, clean pigeons differ from ordinary gray ones by the ability to quickly climb up in more or less shallow circles, sometimes so high that they are not visible for several minutes, and then just as quickly go down; at the same time, some pigeons make circles to the right and in this case are called right-wingers , while others to the left are called leftists ; some pigeons, rising, swirl in one direction, descending - in the other ("reverse whirling"). The most popular is the “ midwifery small flying ”, in which the bird rises exactly near the pole set; such pigeons are sometimes called katunas ^[2] .

Thurman's are distinguished by the ability to tumble or roll over in the air (“cool”), through the head, sometimes through the tail or through the wing. Before the somersault, the dove flaps its wings and “ heals ”, that is, it swims in the air, then, having folded its wings and bending the ring, so that the tail touches the head, falls so fast, somersaulting over its head, so that it looks like a spinning ring. Some flip higher in the air, while others do it below and sometimes almost hit the roof. There are such Turmans (e.g. Bessarabian two-lipped) who tumbling from a great height to the very ground and often crash to their death, usually, turning over ten times or more, Turmans descend to the roof already on the wings. In the old days, thurmans supposedly went straight up - a “lark”, so that it was possible to monitor their flight by placing a basin of water on the ground instead of a mirror and then picking them up on an extended sheet when falling ^[2] .

Russian hunters contain pigeons for the most part in pigeons arranged in the attics . At the dormer window, a room is partitioned by partitions (sometimes from the network) into several rooms, one of which, called a jigging, is intended for the most valuable or recently caught pigeons. Nests are arranged around the walls either in the form of boxes or in the form of stalls, poles are laid in the corners, the floor is sprinkled with sand and water and feed are placed on it (hemp seed, barley , lentils, buckwheat, oats , sometimes rye ). A ladder is attached to the dormer window, but a “crib” is arranged outside, something like a balcony , sometimes even with a railing . On the roof, "caches" are alarming - nets for covering pigeons, ropes from which are held in a dovecote. Before chasing pigeons, they are accustomed to the house. For this, young pigeons are made “knit,” that is, flying feathers are sewn together in the wings, while old ones are made “cuts,” that is, the same feathers are cut. When the pigeons look around in the dovecote, they begin to let it out onto the roof and feed it there, driving it from place to place and driving it back into the pigeon with a special six-piece (whip). Then the pigeons are released onto the roof, having already removed the mating from them, and finally, in calm, calm weather, they scare them off the roof with a “mahalka” (six with a rag imposed), allowing them to sit down in five minutes. Starting to drive, they notice in which wing the bird “ circles ” and separate the rightists from the leftists ^[2] .

The hunt itself with clean clean pigeons consists in first frightening off, for example, the right-wingers, and when they, having risen to a great height, are going to fly back, scare the left-handed people, who, taking circles in the opposite direction from the right-wingers, are also almost hidden from sight. Before the descent of the pigeons, in order to quickly lure them home, they release “on the shrink” of the peaceful pigeon remaining at home ^[2] .

Competition between chased hunters is expressed, as a rule, in catching alien pigeons. Very often, alien pigeons intervene in a flock released from a dovecote, and together with it descend to the roof, where they are covered with the caches mentioned above. Catching pigeons with the help of a “ horse ” is much more interesting. Pigeons are those pigeons that have the ability, upon seeing someone else's pigeon, to “ jump ” to him, that is, fly to him and fly away with him. After wandering with him sometimes for several hours, the steed begins to pull him in his direction, now rushing straight ahead, sometimes circling around him, and seated on his roof, leaving the hunter to cover him with a cache. The horses are very expensive. The caught bird is put in jig and released to the roof, and even more so chased, only when it finally gets used to a new place ^[2] .

Racing hunting with turmans is considered less exciting, since these pigeons do not fly in a flock; released, they scatter in all directions, so it’s very difficult to follow them. Of the chased pigeons for water hunting, mainly round-necked and Turman are used, then Bukhara pigeons, fiery, tubular, trump, Egyptian dutysh and others, which are not suitable for chased hunting. Ancient hunters for breeding the best chased pigeons were planted in sediment and, cherishing them, were not allowed to fly. Subsequent generations of hunters gradually increased their deposits and came to the point that water hunters have the entire dovecote as large deposits, without being released onto the roof ^[2] .

Of greatest importance in water hunting, with the sole purpose of breeding beautiful and thoroughbred pigeons, were the Turmans, from whom the Moscow hunters, by selecting, brought out a new breed of “Moscow Gray, or Aquatic Turmans”. They got the name gray by a grayish tint on their shoulders or back; their color is usually brown, sometimes with a red or violet tint, and only less often a bland gray with a brownish tint; the ends of the wings are always white; tail, starting at half back, gray, abdomen and wing lining - gray-white, white marks on head. The distinctive features of their formation are medium height, beautiful body, saggy wings, tail slightly raised upwards, low, red, rather thick legs, long, thin, beautifully curved neck, dry, right-angled head, which is something like a cube, dark eyes surrounded by wide white eyelids, and a blunt, very short, beautifully set beak. Since the gray Turmans were kept constantly locked up, they almost lost their flying ability, are not very physically built, are infertile, have poor children and feed them even worse, as a result of which they are usually transferred to fledgling, cheap pigeons ^[2] .

The competition between water hunters took place at special competitions, which began to take place in Moscow from the sixties of the nineteenth century, in St. Petersburg even later. At these competitions, the distinguishing features of the competing breed were established and prizes were awarded for the best specimens. Competitions influenced the cost of pigeons, and there are cases of evaluation of gray turmans up to 400 rubles for a very beautiful, thoroughbred bird ^[2] .

A special place in pigeon hunting should be given to the traditions of releasing a pigeon flock in autumn under a wild hawk. The most famous breed in this direction was the CHISTOPOLSK DOVE (aka Prostol, Simple, Winter). He is bred on the Kama River in the city of Chistopol , 120 km from Kazan. One can quote about this kind of pigeon hunt: In the preface by Vitali Bianchi to Mark Grossman’s book “Bird of Joy,” it says: “ Hunting is not only about killing birds and animals. This is, above all, a strong desire, passionate love, all day long, exhausting oneself with energy, wandering around the forests and swamps with a gun, or patiently sit with a fishing rod over the river for hours, or, having stood up a little light, go along the cold dew to pick mushrooms. And, perhaps, the most surprising is bloodless pigeon hunting . "

After the October Revolution, the popularity of this type of hunting came to naught.

• Falcon hunting

• Vasiliev M. , “Russian Pigeons” (“Nature and Hunting”, 1889).
• “Pigeon hunting. The Story of an Old Dovecote ”(“ Library for Reading , 1856, v. 135);
• Elagin P. A. , “Pigeon hunting” (“ Nature and hunting ”, 1879);
• “Hunting talk about pure pigeons” (from an old manuscript, “Nature and Hunting, 1881),”
• R. H. “Memoirs of youth. The Story of the Blueberry ”(Nature and Hunt, 1880).
• L.V. Belovinsky . Pigeon hunting // Illustrated encyclopedic historical and everyday dictionary of the Russian people. XVIII - beginning of XIX century / ed. N. Ereminoy . - M .: Eksmo, 2007 .-- S. 130-131. - 784 p.: - ill. with. - 5,000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-699-24458-4 .