The Dragoon Pigeon. 259 



"There are of this kind, of all Manners of Feathers ; but the Blue 

 and Blue-pieds are most noted to be genuine and good, and if flown 

 are very good Breeders. 



" These are one of the sorts of Pigeons that are chiefly made Use 

 of in England, for the carriage of Letters, or flying of "Wagers ; because 

 those that are possess'd of the true oiiginal Carriers, which are at 

 present very scarce here, pay too dear, and have too great a Value 

 for them, to risque their being lost upon every trifling Wager. 



" These Pigeons when regularly flown, twice on a Day, that is, turu'd 

 out alone and put upon wing without any others, will fly very large 

 Circumferences, so that after they have made a Tour or two round 

 your own House, they will fly four or five Miles out at Length and so 

 maintain the Circuit for an Hour or two : This the Pancyers call 

 going an End, and is what Daniel Moggs, who was one of the oldest 

 Pancyers, meant, when he jocularly ns'd to bid his Pigeons maintain 

 their Length. 



" This Practice is of admirable Service to 'em, when they come to be 

 irain'd for the homing Part." 



And the following is the whole of what Moore says about the 

 Dragoon : 



" This Pigeon is absolutely and without dispute a bastard Strain, 

 being bred originally between a Horseman and a Tumbler, and by 

 matching their breed often to the Horseman, they will obtain a tolerable 

 Degree of Stoutness. 



"This Pigeon is a very good breeder, and as they are somewhat 

 less than a Horseman, are reckon' d lighter, and more expeditious in 

 their Flight, for ten or twenty Miles, but the Horseman if good, will 

 generally out-do them at a greater Length ; they ought to be flown 

 and train' d like the foregoing." 



During the last few years, the dragoon has been extensively bred 

 and shown, and its popularity has been so great that, even at first-class 

 shows, it has been encouraged with a classification and an amount of 

 prize money out of aU proportion to its merits. This pandering to false 

 taste in pigeon breeding culminated at the Oxford show of 1876, where 

 dragoons had eighteen classes, against sixteen for carriers, pouters, 

 tumblers, and barbs combined. Wearisome discussions have also gone 

 on for years over the standard of a dragoon, and I am not aware if 



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