CHAPTER LXXII. 



THE DRAGOON PIGEON. 



Before touching^ on the dragoon, it is necesaary to say something 

 about the pigeon which our old writers called the horseman, a bird 

 holding a position somewhere between the carrier and dragoon. Although 

 no longer recognised in the fancy, the horseman was distinguished 

 from the carrier in being found in greater variety of colour. It was 

 evidently, when Moore wrote, the pigeon capable of flying the longest 

 distances, and it had then a distinct place in the fancy, as will be 

 seen from the following from Moore's work: "This Pigeon in Shape 

 and Make very much resembles the Carrier, only it is smaller in all 

 its Properties, viz. Somewhat less in Body, shorter neck'd, the pro- 

 tuberant 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 

 generally more inclin'd to be barrel-headed and their Eye somewhat 

 pinch'd. 



" 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 oft'ner it is thus bred, the stouter the Horseman 

 becomes. 



" The only thing that seems inclinable to favour the Opinion, that 

 they are original, is a strain of this kind brought over from Scand^eroon, 

 which will fly very great Lengths and very swift ; but still the Answer 

 readily occurs, that they may be bred originally the same way at Scande- 

 roon and so transmitted to us, however, noil nostrum est inter vos 

 tantas componere Lites, that is, we shan't take upon us to determine 

 such Controversies as these. 



