285 WATTLED PIGEONS. 



others, of homing from great distances. We have no means 

 of knowing when the originals of our fancy Carriers were first 

 brought into England. It may have been about the time of the 

 Crusades; but, from Moore's succinct account, it is probable 

 that the breed was of no long standing in London when he 

 wi'ote, and that his words, already quoted, may have been handed 

 down through only a few generations of fanciers. From the 

 fact of pigeons having been used as messengers by the ancient 

 -Egyptians and Greeks, and from the fact of a long-faced, 

 heavily beak and eye-wattled, Asiatic breed, being the founda- 

 tion of the highest developed type of homing pigeon, we may 

 assume that such a breed has existed for a long time in the 

 world. 



The points of excellence in the fancy Carrier are the fol- 

 lowing : — 



Size. — The Carrier should be a large pigeon, and the larger 

 the better. From the point of the beak to the end of the tail, as 

 fanciers measure a pigeon, it should be from 16in. upwards. I 

 <jnce measured a blue hen, and found her 17fin., and a young 

 blue cock of the same strain was ITfin. This hen owed her 

 length as much to neck as to feather, and was not badly pro- 

 portioned in any way. I should say, then, that a full- sized cock 

 Carrier should measure 18in. in feather, without having an un- 

 duly long tail. Blues are, however, admitted to be very stylish 

 and handsome birds, though not generally up to blacks and 

 duns in head properties. For the latter, 17in., at present, is a 

 good measurement. 



Shape and Carriage. — -In Moore's description of the 

 Carrier, the following sentence occurs : " Their Flesh is naturally 

 firm, and their Feathers close, when they stand erect upon their 

 Legs, their Necks being usually long, there appears in them a 

 wonderful Symmetry of Shape beyond other Pigeons, which are 

 generally crowded on Heaps." This is so well put that I cannot 

 help quoting it. It will be seen from the illustration, that the 

 bird stands very erect, and firmly on its legs, with a long, out- 



