BIRDS 125 



To turn next to the consideration of the Pouter, taking 

 the book above mentioned again as our chief authority. The 

 excessively developed crop is by no means confined to the 

 male. Mr. George Ure, who was a pre-eminent breeder and 

 judge of Pouters, writes as follows : " Hens have the crop, 

 but in a less degree. Their style of showing is also a little 

 different from the cocks'. There are hens now and then to 

 be seen with crops as large as cocks', and they will strut 

 about as if they wanted to be taken for one." The enlarged 

 crop, and the extreme development of the habit of inflating 

 it, are then most marked in the male, but present in a less 

 degree in the female. Have these peculiarities been developed 

 by selection alone? In other words, have the variations 

 been spontaneous ? The evidence of the fanciers themselves 

 is directly to the contrary. One fancier writes : " I wish to 

 impress on all fanciers who intend to show their Pouters, 

 the necessity of training them well. After they have got 

 fairly through the first moult, commence training such birds 

 as you intend to be shown. They must be so penned that 

 they cannot see any other bird; they must be taught to 

 keep their block in the pen, and frequently talked to and 

 handled, to make them familiar, so that they will ' show ' 

 when anyone approaches the pen." If this were all it would 

 perhaps be enough. The cock-pigeon in the original con- 

 dition is in the habit of strutting and inflating his crop 

 under the influence of sexual excitement, and a bird system- 

 atically trained would naturally perform similar actions under 

 the influence of the pleasurable excitement of its owner's 

 voice and presence. In the same way, as was mentioned 

 above, the Mandrill and other baboons make a sexual gesture 

 when they feel pleasure at the sight of a familiar keeper. 

 But this is not all. The author of the Book on Pigeons goes 

 much further. According to his advice two pens should be 

 placed together with a sliding partition between them, and 



