PIGEONS. 323 



covered with white soft downy feathers, not marked with any other 

 colour about the thighs or knee-joints, which is termed foul thighed. 

 The crop ought to be large and circular towards the beak, and rise 

 up behind the neck, so as to cover and run gradually off at each 

 shoulder; the bird should fill his crop with wind, to show its full 

 extent, with ease and boldness ; but if the bird does not fully inflate 

 his crop that is, only just enough to make himself look like a badly 

 made runt, he is termed loose winded. In point of colour, the blue, 

 black, red, and yellow pieds, are the most esteemed ; but if a blue pied 

 and a black pied are equally fine in their properties, the black pied, 

 on account of its plumage, is the most valuable of the two ; and if 

 a yellow pied has ths same markings as the two former, it will be 

 more prized than either. The manner in which the markings ought 

 to be distributed over the bird is the following : the head, neck, back, 

 and tail should be uniform in tint; a blue-pied pigeon must have 

 two black streaks near the end of both wings, but if the stripes 

 incline to a brown tint the bird is termed kite barred, and its value 

 is thereby greatly deteriorated; when the pinion of the wing is 

 speckled with white, in the form of a rose, it is called a rose pinion, 

 and is much prized ; and if the pinion is marked with a dash of 

 white on the outer edge of the wings, the bird is reckoned bishopped, 

 or lawn sleeved. If the nine flight feathers of the wings are not 

 white, the bird is foul flighted, and if the outer wing feather only is 

 white, it is sword flighted. The front of the crop should be white, 

 surrounded by a shining green, interspersed with the same colour 

 with which the bird is pied; but the white must not reach so far as 

 to pass round the back of the head, for then it would be considered 

 a ring- headed bird; upon the crop there should be a crescent shaped 

 patch of the colour with which it is pied, and when that is missing 

 it is termed swallow-throated. Pouting horsemen are not so much 

 in repute as formerly, the almond tumblers having almost superseded 

 them in the estimation of the fancy. 



THE PARISIAN POUTER. 



This species was introduced, as its name implies, from Paris ; it is 

 short in its body and legs, thick in its girth, and has generally a 

 long but not a very full crop. Its plumage is much admired, as 

 every feather the flight feathers excepted, which are white is ele- 

 gantly streaked with a rich variety of colours ; if much red is inter- 

 mixed with the other colours, the more valuable is the bird considered. 

 They are usually what is termed bull or gravel eyed. 



THE UPLOPER. 



This bird was originally brought from Holland ; in appearance it 

 greatly resembles an English pouter, only that it is somewhat smaller 

 in all respects; it has thin legs, and its toes are very short and close 

 together, and it tips so exactly upon them when walking, as to leave 

 the ball of the foot quite hollow; its crop is very round, and it 

 generally hides its bill amongst the feathers upon it. 



