The Dragoon Pigeon. 265 



A well known breeder o£ blue carriers told me that, having an odd 

 blue carrier cock matched to an Antwerp hen ae feeders, he bred a young 

 •one from them, which so took the fancy of a dragoon breeder, that he 

 gave him ^7 for it. Yerhwm sat sapienti. 



The dragoon as a show pigeon is merely an excrescence of the show 

 system. The following is from the " Treatise on Pigeons," 1765, p. 89 : 

 "They are very good breeders, and good nurses ; and are chiefly kept as 

 feeders for raising of powters, Leghorn runts, «&c. 



" The following may be depended upon as fact, notwithstanding the 

 appearance of incredibility, as several gentlemen now living can afiirm 

 the same i£ requisite : 



' ' A gentleman of my acquaintance, having a small wager depending, 

 sent a dragoon by the stage coach to his friend at St. Edmond's Bury, 

 together with a note, desiring the Pigeon, two days after his arrival 

 there, might be thrown up precisely when the town clock struck nine in 

 the morning, which was accordingly executed, and the Pigeon arrived 

 in London, and flew to the sign of the BuU Inn in Biahopsgate-Street, 

 into the loft, and was there shewn at half an hour past eleven o'clock 

 the same morning on which he had been thrown up at St. Edmond's 

 Bury, having flown seventy-two miles in two hours and a half; the 

 wager was confirmed by a letter sent by the next post from the person at 

 St. Edmond's Bury. 



' ' I could relate several more exploits of this nature performed by 

 dragoons ; particularly of their being thrown up and returning home by 

 moon-light, &c." 



In Eaton's 1858 book, p. 59, there is also the following note by Mr. 

 John Boys : " Thirty-six years ago, when my collection of Dragons (about 

 thirty) every morning brought me from London, in slips, the leading 

 article of the Morning Post newspaper tied round the leg" — regarding 

 which, Eaton adds, " Prom London to Margate, seventy-two miles ; a 

 decent fly, and proves Dragons can do work." 



I think there is no doubt that the Belgian voyageur owes the best 

 part of its homing faculty either to the English dragoon, or to the same 

 oriental pigeon, which I take to be the original of our fancy carrier. 

 I have lately received, through M. V. La Perre de Eoo, of Paris, 

 several pairs of these pigeons from the loft of one of the chief amateurs 

 of Paris, regarding which he writes : " They have all been sent this year 



