PIGEONS. 71 - 



them much fancied. The colours of their feathers are 

 uncertain. 



II. The next which make the largest figure, but are not 

 in reality the largest birds, are the croppers ; so called 

 because, by attracting the air, they usually blow up 

 their crops to an extraordinary size, so as to be some- 

 times as large as their bodies. This sort is valued 

 in proportion to the facility with which it can swell up 

 its crop. Their bodies are about the size of the smaller 

 runt, but more slender; their feathers are also of various 

 colours. 



III. The shakers are of two sorts, viz. the broad- 

 tailed, and the narrow-tailed : these are so called, be- 

 cause they are almost constantly wagging their heads 

 and necks up and down. The broad-tailed are dis- 

 tinguished by the tail feathers, about twenty-six in 

 number ; the narrow-tailed have not so many. 



These, when they walk, carry their tail-feathers and 

 crest spread like a turkey-cock ; they have likewise a 

 diversity of feathers. 



IV. The jacobins, or cappers, so called on account of 

 certain feathers which turn up about the back part of 

 the head. Some of this sort are rough-footed : they are 

 short billed ; the iris of the eye is of a pearl colour, and 

 the head is commonly white. 



V. The turbit, which some suppose to be a corrup- 

 tion of the word cortbeck, or kortbek, as they are called 

 by the Dutch, which seems to be derived from the 

 French, court-bee, and signifies a short bill, for which 



