FANCIERS’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 
407 
were they to be found, and how much were they to cost? 
Would a very small collection of coins gain them ? Could I 
trade commons for them ? Ah 1 the multiplicity of thoughts 
that tormented me that night ; but, so it is with everything, 
the pursuit is what gives us weal or woe, and in childhood’s 
days, before the mind is trained to look upon a heated desire 
with the coolness that arises from knowledge of the unsatisfac- 
tion of the attainable, the poor victim of a fever strains 
every nerve to its utmost tension in its effort to obtain the 
object of its wishes. Thus, through the night, the pigeons 
winged their way into the wildest realms of the imagination. 
The whirr of the wings ; the fluttering of the letters; the 
alighting upon the hand to be delivered of the despatches, 
and the reception and sending of billet-doux to the young 
girls of my acquaintance, were portions of the distempered 
imageries that routed my repose. 
The morning came — as every other morning comes — after 
the night, and up and away I went after Carriers. From 
huckster to huckster; from loft to loft; over stables, in 
hen-coops, and even in cellars, but all to little purpose. My 
reader, how many times have you trotted that same route ? 
How many times have you asked, “ Do you know anybody 
who has;” and how many times have you followed the 
answer to stumble over disappointment? It is amusing 
now, but was it so then? Was a five-mile walk sufficient 
to turn you from your purpose ; and did you pursue the 
woman you married with more avidity than you did the 
search for the bird you fancied? I trow not, for, had I pur- 
sued any fair maiden with the same enthusiasm I have 
hunted for pigeons, I too would have had my neck in the 
matrimonial noose, and have been debarred the pleasure of 
conducting new generations of blushing nieces to the front, 
as their aunties relapsed into wall flowering and cat nursing. 
After a day’s ramble, the Carriers were found and bought. 
They looked very much like big commons, but their beaks 
were longer and eyes larger. The man who sold them 
said they would carry anything from a jack straw to a 
bushel basket, and I believed him, paid for them, and took 
them home. It was not long until I tried their properties. 
An envelope was securely attached to each of them, and 
into the air they were tossed. Did they carry? I should 
say they did. If those pigeons are not flying yet, it is 
because wind and muscle became exhausted ; for the air 
was never beat by two more affrighted birds. The last I 
saw of them, they were bending their energies on a journey 
round the earth, the yellow envelopes fluttering in the 
breezes, and urging them onward at their level best. I’d 
like to see those birds again. 
It is needless to say I was disappointed in the results of 
my first experiment — but better luck next time is the motto 
of fanciers, and soon a fine pair of Carriers occupied my 
loft, yet, when these were allowed liberty, they could not 
fly at all. What was the matter? After many trials I 
found out that Carrier was a name common to two varieties, 
one of which was a common-looking bird with powerful 
shoulders, and broad breast ; the other was a large bird, gen- 
erally black or dun in color, with long beak and heavily 
wattled nostril and eyes — the so-called high fancy English 
Carrier. 
It is with this latter we have to do. I have elsewhere 
written of it, and have mentioned the reasons why I think 
it should be called the long-faced Barb, or more justly the 
Barb, in exclusion to the bird that goes by that name, and 
which might he called the Short-faced Barb, just as some 
Tumblers are named the Short-faced Tumbler; yet, as this 
paper bids fair to be long, I will leave that question and 
treat of it as it is best known. 
After discovering the differences between the varieties, I 
gave up the messenger idea, and cultivated the English 
Carrier, but was a long time learning what a Carrier should 
be. Books on pigeons were not common in those days, and 
knowing fanciers were few, yet, after a number of years, 
and through the kindness of traveling friends, I obtained a 
strain of as fine birds as England could produce. 
Eaton’s plates were also published, and became valuable 
guides in my efforts to improve my stock ; and yet with 
all the artificial aids, and a good deal of experience, I 
found out that to breed a strain of perfect Carriers is 
one of the hardest problems a fancier has to solve. Even 
after obtaining fine stock, the difficulties were great. The 
best birds being matched often brought imperfect young, 
at least the results were better when to a bird that was 
nearly perfect was matched a bird that was fully pro- 
vided with the point in which the nearly perfect bird 
was wanting. One must fix in one’s mind an ideal 
strain of birds, and then breed as near the ideal as pos- 
sible, keeping the strain devoted to that purpose as pure 
as possible, watching all its points, and only introducing 
new blood when absolutely necessary, and then only such 
birds as have the point largely developed in which the ideal 
strain is weakening. The fewer new elements (new blood) 
introduced to a nearly perfect strain the better. There is 
too much crossing done with the vague idea of improving 
one’s stock. A’s stock will not improve if he crosses this 
season with B’s and next season with C’s, to be followed by 
a cross with D’s. He may wonder that his stock degener- 
ates, but he might expect it. By the indiscriminate cross- 
ing he has introduced all the imperfections of the different 
strains into his own — and imperfections are much more 
easily obtained than perfections. 
When A discovers his strain is losing in wattle, he should 
look for a large wattled bird, and take no other, merely be- 
cause it is new blood, the same with regard to length of beak, 
etc., discarding, at the same time, all the birds of his own 
strain that he can spare, that show decided loss of the 
property. 
The carrier has been, for many years, the pride of Eng- 
lish fanciers, and they have shown much skill in bring- 
ing the variety to its present state of excellence ; for the 
present bird has been created by them; in other words, 
Englishmen have, from a numerous variety of barbed or 
wattled pigeons, selected those having long beaks and wattled 
eyes and nostrils, and by judicious management, have suc- 
ceeded in impressing these points upon the strains they have 
bred, until we have, as a result, the magnificent, artificial 
bird of this era. 
That the variety is thoroughly artificial is demonstrated 
by allowing the birds to take care of themselves and they at 
once degenerate into dragoons, and lastly, into the common 
blue pigeon. Thus it is easily seen how much care and 
thought is necessary to keep up a strain, entirely too much 
for the ordinary keeper of pigeons. In fact, this remark 
is applicable to all the high fancy birds and one perfect 
strain is as much as most of the best fanciers accomplish. 
Though one can understand and discuss all the varieties, 
it is almost impossible for him, unless he devotes a life to 
it, to breed successfully any number of the varieties. I in- 
(To be continued.) 
