267 POUTING PIGEONS. 



original, or whether both have arisen from some common 

 stock. In my opinion, we find the answer to this question 

 very easily if we look practically into the way and manner 

 of degeneration in both races. That both easily degenerate 

 with careless breeding lets us know that both races are not 

 yet very old ; but in this respect we must not think of the 

 generations of man, for, no doubt, both races have existed 

 200-300 years. If we now examine the degeneracies of English 

 Pouters, the shorter legs and less upright carriage show their 

 ancestors must have had these faults. With the degeneration 

 of Pomeranian Croppers we find lower and less-feathered legs, 

 white spots on the wings, and white snips on the forehead, 

 which leads us to suppose that they proceed from a race which 

 had bare legs and white heads. Only the old German Croppers 

 are so marked, and I therefore take them to be the original 

 of our Croppers." 



From the foregoing it is evident that there is enough re- 

 semblance between the English and Pomeranian Croppers to 

 establish a connection between them. Sailors speak of every 

 northern European who is not a Frenchman as a Dutchman. 

 Moore's Dutch Cropper was evidently a bird with much re- 

 semblance to the Pomeranian, so it is not unlikely that this 

 pigeon, " flag thigh'd," as Moore says, was the ancestor of our 

 Pouter. The Horseman cross would take the feathers from 

 its legs at first, evidence of which I have adduced from the 

 Treatise of 1765, and from the description of my old painting 

 of the time of Moore ; but leg feathering to suit the taste of 

 fanciers was quickly recovered. As to solid shoulders being 

 infinitely preferable to bishoped wings there is no doubt; but 

 the Pomeranian breed itself is evidently not altogether free 

 of white " daubs " on the wing, as they are called. As to 

 deducing both varieties from the old bald-headed, long-bodied 

 German Cropper, already referred to, I can see nothing in the 

 argument at all. The correct crop marking of the English Pouter, 

 and similarly marked breeds, must necessarily vary very con- 



