53 



COLUMBA TABELLAEIA MINOR. The Horseman. 



149. — This Pigeon in shape and make very much resembles the Carrier, 

 onl)^ it is smaller in all its properties, viz. Somewhat less in body, shorter 

 necked, the protuberent flesh upon the beak smaller, as likewise that 

 round the eye, so that there remains a larger space or distance between 

 the wattle and the eye, in this Pigeon than in the Carrier. They are gene- 

 rally more inclined to be barrel headed, and their eye somewhat pinched. 



150. — It is to this day a matter of dispute, whether this be an original 

 Pigeon : or whether it be not a bastard strain, bred between a Carrier 

 and a Tumbler, or a Carrier and a Powter, and so bred over again 

 from a Carrier, and the oftener it is thus bred, the. stouter the horseman 

 becomes. 



(Bkent.) — ^The English Carriers and Horseman Pigeons are so inseparably connected, 

 that in describing one I must also describe the other. Indeed, I believe the Horseman 

 to be the primitive stock, and that the English Carrier is the effect of the high cultiva- 

 tion of the former, those points of excellence which the Fancier most highly prizes 

 being more highly developed in the Carrier. As I consider the Horseman as the ori- 

 ginal, I will first draw attention to them. They appear to have come originally from 

 Persia, and also to have been bred extensively in Turkey and Egypt, where they have 

 been long used as mediums of communications. They are fine, noble birds, being con- 

 siderably larger than the generality of Pigeons. Their beak is long and stout, and 

 covered at its base with a great quantity of wattle, wrinkled, whitish-looking skin, or, 

 in other words, an extreme developement of the nose ; the eyes are also surrounded 

 with a broad circle of the same appearance called the sere. The neck is long and 

 rather bent, the feathers often opening a little in front of th-e bend, exposing a small 

 streak of red skin. The chest is very broad and full, the shoulders wide ; the bend 

 of the wings stands rather out from the sides, the legs and feet very stout ; the tail and 

 pinion feathers are rather short for the size of the bird, the former being carried some- 

 what elevated. 



(Bkent.) — The English Carrier differs from this in the greater development of the 

 fancy points on which Fanciers lay great stress, and according to their merits in this 

 respect are they of proportionate value. The beak must be long, thick and straight ; 

 the wattle large, high, and leaning slightly forward. The old Fanciers admired it most 

 when of a blackish tint ; the sere round the eyes should be broad, even, and round, 

 which is termed a rose-eye ; if uneven it is called pinch-eyed, which is a great defect. 

 The head is long, narrow, and flat on the top ; the colour of the iris is of a bright gra- 

 velly red. The neck must be long, thin, and without bend ; they should be broad 

 across the back, but small in the waist. The pinion feathers of the wings, as also the 

 tail, should be very long and not carried up, consequently, they are much more elegant- 

 looking birds than the Horseman; in colour they are mostly black or dun, — the duns 

 generally have the best heads. 



150. (Eaton). — If it were a matter of dispute in the year 1735, (it is more so now, 

 in the year 1858.) It is quite clear that none of us are able to recollect whether this 

 be an orignal bird or not, nevertheless, if we have brains, as I said in a former part 

 of this work, let us endeavour to exercise them. After reading MoOKE, and com- 

 paring Matoe and Girtin's Work to Mooee's, they are both the same, only altering 

 a few words, which is the same as regards the sense, or differently placing the para- 

 graphs ; now as none of us can recoUect, and as it v/as a matter of dispute one hun- 

 dred and twenty-three years ago, we have the same right to exercise our judgment 

 (however little it may be) as they had in the year 1735, when the book was printed,, 

 and from which this subject under consideration is taken. I shall endeavour to tread 

 in the footsteps of that humble and modest Fancier, who I style the pre-eminent 

 of Fanciers — the late Mr. John Mooke, who repeatedly in his work expressed his wish 



