THE PIGEON 135 



claws, forming a cumbersome and unsightly sort of 

 footgear which is found to be due to captivity, the 

 wild bird never having anything of the kind. Then 

 come the pouter pigeons, which have the faculty of 

 swallowing air and inflating the crop in a large ball, 

 so that the base of the neck seems to be affected with 

 the deformity known as goiter. That is their way 

 of showing off : the larger the ball, the prouder they 

 are of their figure. " 



"What a queer idea," Emile exclaimed, "to think 

 it improves one 's looks to have a frightful goiter or 

 to wear those feathered leggings that trail in the 

 mud and interfere with walking ! ' ' 



"A life of idleness, my friend, engenders many 

 caprices: examples abound in man even more than 

 in pigeons. But let us get on; these things do not 

 concern us. 



6 1 Now, here are some pi'geons that have their heads 

 adorned with a crown of feathers, are shod like the 

 preceding, and imitate in their cooing the roll of a 

 drum. ' ' 



"Then they ought to be called, from the roll of 

 the drum, drummer-pigeons, " declared Emile. 



"You have hit it exactly: that is precisely their 

 name. Here are others with trailing wings, tail 

 erect and expanded like a fan, and the body in an 

 almost continual state of trembling. You would say 

 they had a fever. The spread tail gives them the 

 name of fan-tails, while from their ceaseless shaking 

 they are sometimes called shakers. Euffled pigeons 



