CHAP, iv.j POWTERS THEIR CROSSES. 125 



upon a nail, keeping them in this manner till they have 

 digested their food, only not forgetting to give them now 

 and then a little water, and it will often cure them ; 

 but when you take them out of the stocking, put them 

 in an open basket or coop, giving them but a little 

 meat at a time, or else they will be apt to gorge again."* 



No space remains to give the technical points of the 

 Powters of the fancy, which would best be done by 

 liberal quotation from the Treatise. The author 

 quite sympathises with the " insanity" of the ancient 

 Romans. He elaborately describes five properties of 

 the standard Powter, and six rules for the manner in 

 which a Powter should be pied, as " published arid in 

 use among the columbarians;" and sums up all philo- 

 sophically thus : 



" A Powter that would answer to all these properties, 

 might very justly be deemed perfect ; but as absolute 

 perfection is incompatible with anything in this world, 

 that Pigeon which makes the nearest advances towards 

 them is most undoubtedly the best."f 



Some of the crosses between Powters and other Pigeons 

 are held in esteem ; that most prized is the cross with 

 the Carrier, as being a bird of powerful flight. " Light 

 horsemen. This is a bastard kind, of one parent a Crop- 

 per, the other a Carrier, and so they partake of both, as 

 appears by the wattles of their bill, and their swollen 

 throats. They are the best breeders of all, and will not 

 lightly forsake any house to which they have been ac- 

 customed. "I The same mixture of breeds often goes 

 by the name of Dragoon. The Treatise applies the 



* Treatise, p. 38. f Il >- P- 160- { Willughby. 



