THE PEDIGREE OF THE FANCY. 37 



had good wages there was general prosperity ; 

 but, unfortunately for them, in the year 1824 

 they lost their book of prices, home and foreign 

 competition soon reduced wages, and away went 

 the tulips and the pigeons to the highest bidder, 

 and the culture of high-class birds began to de- 

 cline among the weavers, and gave opportunity 

 to the gentlemen of the Fancy to obtain rare 

 specimens from those who, but for altered cir- 

 cumstances, would not have parted. 



Amongst the readiest to embrace the advan- 

 tages thus offered of obtaining the choicest birds 

 were the canny Scotch Fanciers. Mr. Huie, 

 many years ago, when on his journeys in Eng- 

 land, was always on the look-out for something 

 good. In London he visited among the Spital- 

 field weavers, and " seldom," relates Mr. Ure, 

 " returned home to Dundee without bringing or 

 sending some rare specimens mostly Pouters 

 and Shortfaces." The Scotch pouter fancy of 

 to-day is built almost entirely out of the scat- 

 tered and ruined lofts of the Spitalfield weavers. 



In England to-day Pigeon-fanciers are multi- 

 tudinous, and their numbers, drawn from all 

 classes of society, are constantly augmenting. 

 These facts can be tested by considering the 

 rapid increase in the number of Annual Shows 



