176 FANCY PIGEONS. 



Dutch, Cappers, because, on the hinder part of the head, or 

 nape of the neck, certain feathers reflected upward encompass 

 the head behind, almost after the fashion of a monk's hood 

 when he puts it back to uncover his head. These are called 

 Cyprus Pigeons by Aldrovand, and there are of them rough- 

 footed. Aldrovandus has set forth three or four, either species 

 or accidental varieties of this kind. Their bill is short, the 

 irides of their eyes of a pearl colour, and the head (as Mr. 

 Cope told us) in all white." It is to be noted, that there 

 were Bald-headed Jacobins before 1676, according to what 

 Mr. Cope, the Pouter fancier of Jewin- street, told Willughby. 



Moore, of course, gives a good account of the Jacobin, which 

 was then, as now, called the Jack, for shortness. It was then, 

 " if true, the smallest of all Pigeons, and the smaller still 

 the better " ; and he adds : " there are but very few now to be 

 found in England compleat." I think it unlikely that Moore 

 ever saw such good Jacobins as are in existence at the present 

 time, after reading that " the Feathers of this Chain ought 

 to be long and close, so that, if you strain the Neck a little, 

 by taking hold of the Bill, the two sides will lap over each 

 other in some of the best." The very best, in his time, there- 

 fore, required the above treatment before their chains would 

 cross in front. Nowadays, many Jacobins exist whose chains 

 lap over naturally, not only without straining the neck by 

 "taking hold of the Bill," but without cutting out a piece of 

 the skin of the throat, as " Mayor " (1765) says was practised 

 for the same purpose. Moore describes a pigeon known as a 

 Ruff, "larger than the true original Jacobine, tho' in shape 

 and make much the same. It has a longer Beak, the Irides 

 of the Eyes in some are of a Pearl Colour, in others of a 

 Gravel Colour, the Feathers of its Hood and Chain are much 

 longer, tho' the Chain does not come down so low to the 

 Shoulders of the Wings, neither are they so close and com- 

 pact as the others, but are apt to blow about by every blast 

 of Wind, fall more backward off the Head, and lie in a rough 



