Pigeon whistle

The pigeon whistle, known in China as geling 鴿鈴 or geshao 鴿哨, is a small musical instrument belonging to the Aeolian group of musical instruments. It is attached to the tail of a pigeon with the help of a spindle, so that it emits a sound when the bird flies. The whistle is usually made of light materials such as gourd and bamboo, and is lacquered.

Skušek’s collection of fourteen pigeon whistles contains three different types of instruments, distinguished by their shape: gourd, tube, and combined. The combined type is also called the star and eye type of pigeon whistle. What all whistles of this type have in common is an oval gourd body, the star belly, with a plate underneath for attaching the pigeon whistle to the pigeon, a sub-whistle at the front, and a larger “back pipe” at the back. Instruments are named according to the total number of back pipes and sub-whistles, including all those attached in pairs on either side of the gourd body. If the whistle has a total of seven sub-whistles and pipes, it is called a seven-star whistle, but if the total number of pipes exceeds nine, it is an eye whistle. On the photo we can see a combined type of pigeon whistle, a seven-star pigeon whistle. It is characterised by a green painted star belly. It also has an incised mark, probably the Chinese character shi (士). (KH)