Decembei 10, 1874. ] 



JOUBNAL OP HORTICULXUKE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



529 



and indeed now chiefly. Horsemen and Dragoons be Bine, Red, 

 Yellow, White, Grizzle, Silvers, &c. Next, Horsemen are dis- 

 tinct, and always were, from the high-type Black and Dun 

 Carriers. There is a very old picture of one in oil at Hampton 

 Court Palace. They were and are stouter birds than the true 

 Dragoon, and these birds improved by skill take now the chief 

 prizes as Dragoons. 



That these prize Dragoons — the heavier sort — are sometimes 

 also bred direct from a Carrier and Dragoon is also true. A 

 friend of mine bred one from a black-beaked Carrier and a Dra- 

 goon. A great dealer admired it, bought it, and won many 

 prizes with it, exhibiting it as a Dragoon, and this within recent 

 years. Now no one will say that this bird was a true Dragoon ; 

 it was simply a young Horseman Carrier-bred in part. 



I think that not only fancy Pigeons must not be allowed to 

 deteriorate, but they must not be allowed to go under wrong 

 names; and that those who are not themselves exhibitors, and 



therefore have not their minds biassed or warped by the desire 

 of taking prizes, are the best persons to speak out on this sub- 

 ject. The case stands thus : A man breeds or buys birds of a 

 certain type, he gets prizes, he gets up a stock of such birds, and 

 they are profitable ; all the while they may be birds of a wrong 

 type. Such is just the case with the successful exhibitors of 

 the Horseman-Dragoons of the present day. Such also was the 

 case with the Anglo-African Owls of a few years since ; now 

 they are English and African Owls which are shown. Why not 

 exhibit Horsemen and Dragoons instead of Horseman-Dragoons? 

 The reason is, that valuable Horseman-Dragoons throng the 

 lofts of successful exhibitors. 



Next, what should the true Dragoon be like ? First, it should 

 not be a large bird ; the beak should not be short and thick ; the 

 eye should not be a little pinched at the back, but as circular as 

 possible. The Dragoon should be a smallish, smart-looking, 

 gracefully-formed bird, as unlike a Carrier in every respect as 



Fig. 149. — The dragoon pigeon. 



possible : the beak long and straight, the beak- wattle peg-shaped 

 and no jew wattle, and no dent between beak and head ; the 

 neck should be thin, as indeed the whole body should, but the 

 shoulders somewhat broad. In Blues the bars should be black 

 and narrow. In brief, the Dragoon should be slightly built ; as I 

 have frequently written, he should be "a tight little, light little 

 fellow." 



Of modem describers of the right type of Dragoon Mr. Lndlow 

 stands first as an accurate describer both with pen and pencil. 

 Another accurate writer is Mr. Woodhouse, of Lynn. The place 

 where the real Dragoon is seen and bred is Birmingham, and 

 Birmingham is first for Dragoons as certainly as Glasgow is for 

 Pouters. Let the so-called London style of bird be exhibited 

 nnder his right, or nearly right, name — that of Horseman. As 

 Mr. Ludlow has well said in the columns of a contemporary, 

 " They are a lot of degenerate Carriers, big, heavy, and coarse." 

 " Eun as Dragoons, because there are no classes for Red, Yellow, 

 or White Carriers, and they are not good enough to grapple with 

 the Blacks and Duns." 



In conclusion I would say. Exhibit Horsemen and exhibit 

 Dragoons, but do not mingle the two. Fanciers, and those who 

 are determined to keep the fancy up to the right mark, have, it 

 appears to me, to do two things : Fight strenuously against all 

 unfair doings, all trimming, staining, painting, &c. ; fight against 

 all turf-like tricks which threaten to banish honest men from, 

 if not the fancy, the ranks of exhibitors. Then, too, resist 

 attempts to alter the type of any variety of Pigeon, for there must 

 in all common sense be but one style of bird, and not Loudon 



style and Birmingham style. It is true style, and the style of 

 the successful exhibitor who, having bred up to a certain standard, 

 naturally desires that standard to be preserved. If that standard 

 be correct, keep to it by all means. I rejoice when any exhibitor 

 breeds nearer and nearer to perfection, but if his style be the 

 wrong type of bird I must disregard his breeches-pocket 

 interest, and pronounce in favour of what is right, for right is 

 right. We must persevere in a right course always. Mr. Bishop, 

 of Dorchester, persevered with his true Silvers, and has suc- 

 ceeded in having a class for the correct bird at the Palace Show, 

 in spite of the attractive appearance of the black-barred — i.e., 

 the Blue-crossed Silvers. Both birds are very pretty, but true 

 is true, right is right. A true and right Silver must have brown 

 bars, for it always had. We must also remember that prizes 

 are not always criterions of what is strictly correct; they ought 

 to be, but they are not, and certainly they have not been of late 

 in Dragoons. — Wiltshire Rector. 



P.S.— Since writing the above I have read in the last issue of 

 a contemporary the following :— " Mr. Graham has bought a bird 

 from a friend of mine shown at the last Bradford Show. Now, 

 this bird is bred from a Blue cock, which my friend intended 

 at one time to breed Carriers from, and a half-bred Black 

 Carrier hen ! This bird, he says, is the best young Dragoon 

 he has seen this year;" whereas the truth is the bird is not a 

 Dragoon at all. Take this anecdote, together with the one I 

 have stated above, and we see that the heavy style that too often 

 wins is a Horseman and not a Dragoon, or something of the kind 

 of Horseman, At any rate this is not keeping the two varieties 



