284 FANCY PIGEONS. 



The Carrier takes tliree years and upwards to come to 

 maturity. At some of the principal exhibitions classes are 

 provided for birds bred during the preceding season ; but, 

 generally, Carrier classes are only available for old birds. 

 This pigeon looks particularly well during two periods of its 

 -existence — viz., when under a year old, when its noble shape and 

 •carriage are at their best ; and then, again, when its head pro- 

 perties are fully developed. A careful study of all that our old 

 books on pigeons contain regarding it, proves that it has steadily 

 a^dvanced in excellence since Moore's time. Like other varieties 

 which take long to mature, good specimens are very valuable, 

 and I believe the sum of £100 has been paid, on at least three 

 occasions, for a tine specimen of this breed. Its name is, without 

 doubt, derived from the use made of it when first introduced 

 into this country, the same having been retained when it became 

 strictly a fancier's pigeon. Its sub-varieties, the Horseman and 

 Dragoon — names which also clearly show their origin — were the 

 birds mostly used in Moore's time as homing pigeons, but it was 

 merely because Carriers were too valuable "to risque their being 

 lost upon every trifling wager," as he plainly says, and not that 

 they were incapable of homing a good distance; for, says he, 

 ** such is the admirable Cunning, or Sagacity of this Bird, that 

 tho' you carry 'em Hood-winkt, twenty or thirty Miles, nay I 

 have known 'em to be carried three-score or a hundred, and 

 there turn'd loose, they will immediately hasten to the Place 

 where they were bred." When Moore has written this regarding 

 the pure Carriers of his day, we must come to the conclusion 

 that they were not so developed in fancy points as they now are, 

 or that such as could fly sixty to a hundred miles were either 

 comparatively young ones, or old ones which had never made 

 up much in beak and eye wattle. There can be no reasonable 

 doubt that the Carrier is descended from the same stock that 

 has been used for many ages in the East as messenger pigeons, 

 and that, whatever it might be capable of doing now, its relative, 

 the homing Antwerp Carrier, is the variety capable, above all 



