2 So Fancy Pigeons. 



good bird in position. The head and beak do not constitute fancy 

 points, because, generaJhj, there is nothing abnormal about them. As I 

 have said, beak and eye-wattle is ■•^omefimef: developed to an abnormal 

 extent ; but when it ie, it is generally when the bird is past being fit for 

 showing. Allowing for size, the head and beak of the pouter may be 

 said to bo of the common type. 



The chief and most important part in the shape of a pouter is the 

 crop, towards the setting off of which, to the greatest advantage, all its 

 other parts are designed. By the time a young bird has moulted its nest 

 feathers, the breeder has an idea if it is to be well developed in this 

 respect. The cock is averagely better in crop than the hen, though, 

 as a young bird, she generally shows it sooner. The crop ought to 

 be very large, and as round as possible from every point of view. It 

 ought to be carried with freedom, and fully expanded when the bird ia 

 in show. 



Slenderness of girth or smallneas in waist shows off a good crop to the 

 greatest advantage, and is one of the principal points that contribute 

 to fine shape in a pouter. While most pouters thicken in body after 

 two years of age, I have known some retain their slender girth for six 

 years, and never be shown without winning. Fanciers should strive 

 to obtain birds of the latter type, the only one which a breeder who 

 has passed through his novitiate has any pleasure in keeping. 



The limbs are, next to a good crop, the most important points about 

 the shape of the pouter. They ought to be long, properly placed in the 

 body, well shaped, and rightly feathered. Limb is measured from the 

 joint of the thigh, first above the hock, to the point of the nail of the 

 middle toe. A limb measuring in this way 7in. is extra long. A year or 

 two ago, I visited the lofts of more than thirty Scotch and English 

 pouter breeders, and all the real 7in. limbed pouters I saw on my 

 journey could be counted on the fingers of one hand. It ia usual, either 

 intentionally or from ignorance of how to measure, to overstate the length 

 of limb in pouters about a quarter of an inch ; but this extra quarter 

 sometimes makes a great difference in the value of a bird. A fancier 

 once wrote me that ho required his cock pouters to be 7in. in limb and 

 his hens Ovin. ; but when I visited him he could not show me a bird out 

 of thirty measuring eo much. Some birds wear down their toenails very 

 much ; in others, living under the same conditions, the nails grow out 



