244 FANCY PIGEONS. 



of the Continental Pigmy Pouters; but that similar pecu- 

 liarities are shared by a pure English variety, the fanciers 

 of which have an old, though unwritten, code of rules to 

 guide them, is not generally known. I learned much of what 

 I know of these rules from Mr. Boreham, of Colchester, who 

 graduated under an old Cropper fancier, the late Mr. Perry, 

 of Great Yarmouth, who, I believe, died, at an advanced age, 

 somewhere about 1871. He was a Cropper fancier all his life, 

 always kept up a stock of good birds, and was always willing 

 to buy a good one. I had one old cock which belonged to 

 him, from which the best 1 ever possessed descended. 



SIZE. I admire smallness of size in a Cropper, though 

 not at any sacrifice of what goes to make up general good 

 shape. Mr. Boreham, and others with whom I have ex- 

 changed ideas on the subject, agree with me in this, while 

 many pay no regard to size if a bird flies well. The best 

 Croppers I have seen were of a medium size; but there 

 little difference in size between the largest and smallest birds 

 of the pure breed. 



SHAPE. While it would take the best parts of several 

 first-class English Pouters to make up such a pigeon as my 

 drawing represents, I have seen many Croppers quite equal 

 in outline to my illustration. The crop in these pigeons is, 

 for the most part, far better developed than in Pouters, 

 their respective sizes considered; indeed, many of these 

 beautiful little pigeons have crops that would be considered 

 good in a large Pouter. The crop, or bladder, as it is called 

 in Norwich, is often as round as a ball, even filling out 

 behind the neck, so that a perfectly spherical shape is some- 

 times attained; and in it, as Moore says of the Uploper, 

 the bird " generally buries its Bill." The legs should be 

 entirely free of feathers; but about half the number of 

 Croppers I have seen or possessed have had some short 

 feathers down the outsides of the legs and on the middle 

 toes, which I consider so far faulty, the barelegged birds 



