158 FANCY PIGEONS. 



a Bird, witli a small Wattle on it, and the upper chap a 

 little bending over the under. 



"They are a very tender Bird, and great care ought to 

 be taken with their young ones. I was offered Seventeen 

 Shillings for a single Cock, and Sir Dolbey Thomas would 

 have given me a Guinea and a half for the same Bird. 

 There are very few true original ones of this breed in 

 England; and if matcht to a Spanish Runt, they will breed 

 a very large Pigeon, closer in Flesh and Feather than the 

 Spanish Runt, and will breed much faster ; I have kill'd of 

 their young ones which, when on the Spit, were full as large as 

 middling spring Fowls. I here note that these and all 

 other Runts encrease in their bulk till they are three or 

 four Years old. 



"As to their Feather, they are various, but the best that 

 I have seen were either black or red mottled. 



"There is a vast difference in these Birds, and I have seen 

 very bad ones, that have been brought from Leghorn, little 

 better than a common Runt ; however, this is the genuine 

 true Description of the Leghorn Runt, which is more valued 

 than any other sort of Runts." 



The author of the " Treatise on Pigeons " (1765) quotes the 

 foregoing, and adds : " Mr. Moore says they are a very tender 

 Bird; but I must beg leave to dissent from that opinion of 

 them, having kept them several winters in a little shed or 

 room, one side of which was entirely open, and exposed to 

 the easterly winds, with no other fence but a net which kept 

 them confined. I have known four guineas given for a pair 

 of these Birds. I have had a hen of the Leghorn breed 

 which weighed two pounds two ounces avoirdupois weight." 



The illustration of this breed in the Treatise of 1765 repre- 

 sents a large, heavy-looking bird, with sunken eyes and half- 

 erect tail, but not nearly so pronounced in type as my illus- 

 tration, which is taken from the Black or Black Mottled 

 variety of the race, often shown of late in this country as 



