276 Fancy Pi'creons. 



flag-thigh'd ; their Legs stand wide and they seldom play upright ; they 

 are gravel Ey'd, and generally very bad Feeders, therefore as soon as 

 they have fed off their soft Meat it is proper to put their young ones 

 under a pair of small Bunts, Dragoons, or Powting-horsemen, which may 

 be kept as Nurses for that Purpose. There are of all Sorts of Feathers 

 in this Pigeon, and the Dutch in breeding it take a very great care ; for 

 as soon as they have fed off their soft Meat, they put the young ones 

 under others to nurse, and then separate the old ones, placing them 

 in different Coops, and feeding them high with Hemp or Rape Seed for 

 a Month, then turning them together ; and by being very hearty and 

 salacious, they breed Pigeons with very good Properties : from whence 

 we may observe, that wou'd Mankind be like abstemious, their Progeny 

 might be more oompleat both in Body and Mind. These are the Pigeons 

 that are most apt to gorge, if not kept constantly supplied with Meat 

 and Water." 



Moore nest commences his description of the English pouter by 

 saying : "This Pigeon, which was first bred in England, and is therefore 

 caU'd the English Powter, is originally a mixt breed between a Horse- 

 man and a Cropper, and by matching their young ones over and over to 

 the Cropper, Experience teaches us, it will add a wonderful Beauty to 

 this Bird, and raise in it the five following Properties." Though 

 Moore does not say what kind of cropper was used for breeding the 

 Enghsh pouter, the inference is that he referred to the aforesaid Dutch 

 variety, which is, in fact, the only cropper he describes. His descrip- 

 tion of what constituted a good English pouter in 1735, is, indeed, excel- 

 lent, so far as it goes ; and though he does not go minutely into the 

 appearance of the bird, his account of it, had nothing been added by 

 the author of the Treatise of 1765, would give those who read his work 

 to-day the idea that our pouter is identical with the one he describes. 

 During the thirty years foUomng the pubhoation of Moore's work, how- 

 ever, a considerable improvement appears to have been made in the 

 breeding of fancy pigeons, as I learn from the following, taken from 

 the preface of the Treatise of 1765, page xiv. : "It is to be observed 

 that the species in general, and the almond tumbler in particular, are, 

 from great care and expenoe in breeding them, arrived to so great a 

 perfection, and so different from what they were twenty or thirty years 

 past, that if a person who had been a fancier at that period, and had 



