The Dragoon Pigeon. 261 



ground, and extending quite halt an inch beyond the tips o£ the 

 wings. 



" Measuremeni of the leg from the hock to the foot, about \\ inches. 

 The Thigh stout and muscular. The Whole length of the Dragon, 

 from the point of the beak to the extremity of the tail, about 15 inches. 



" Colour in Blues. — The Neck dark and lustrous ; the Body, Bump, 

 and Thighs a leaden blue of uniform shade. Markings — A broad 

 black bar across the end of the tail. Two black bars, about f of an inch 

 wide, even and distinct, running transversely from top to bottom of each 

 wing, in the form of the letter V inverted. Colour of beak, black. 

 Colour of eye-wattle, a deep blue-grey. 



" Silvers. — An uniform and bright creamy tint. Neck of a deeper 

 shade. Bars as black as possible. Beak of a dark shade. 



" Cfrizzles and Chequers. — Each feather distinctly grizzled or chequered. 

 The Markings, colour of Beaks, and Eye-wattles, same as in blues. 



" Yellows and Reds. — Colour uniform and bright. Beak of an even 

 flesh colour." 



The foregoing scale of points nearly agrees with what was formerly 

 known as the "London style," opposed to which, the "Birmingham 

 School ' ' upheld a more skinnumy kind of dragoon. Both kinds are 

 fuUy described by their partisans in Mr. Fulton's book, where coloured 

 plates of each are given. I think no one can carefully read Moore's 

 descriptions of the horseman and dragoon without coming to the conclu- 

 sion that the latter was, in his day, a different bird from the modern 

 Loudon one, which closely approximates to his description of the horse- 

 man, with its barrel-head, pinched eye, and various colours, of which, 

 " the blues and blue-pieds are most noted to be genuine and good.' ' I 

 think that, in the course of time, Moore's horseman and dragoon have 

 gradually amalgamated in the present London dragoon, which has become 

 of a somewhat fixed type in the hands of London pigeon keepers, though 

 probably without much design on their part ; and now, in these days of 

 pigeon shows, when, in the course of a year, a typical bird, according to 

 the foregoing standard, can win quite a large sum of money in prizes, it 

 is no wonder that what was before show days a pigeon worth only a few 

 shillings, is now very valuable indeed. 



On comparing the standards of the carrier and dragoon, it will be seen 

 that much which ia faulty in the former becomes positively excellent in the 



