The Norwich Cropper. 293 



are shared by a pure English variety, the fanciers of which have an old, 

 though unwritten, code o£ rules to guide them, is not generally known. 

 I learned much of what I know of these rules from Mr. Boreham, of 

 Colchester, who graduated under an old cropper fancier, the late Mr. 

 Perry, of Great Yarmouth, who, I believe, died at an advanced age 

 somewhere about 1871. He was a cropper fancier all his life, always 

 kept up a stock of good birds, and was always willing to buy a good one. 

 I have one old cock which belonged to him, from which the best I have 

 are descended. 



Size. — I admire smaUness of size in a cropper, though not at any 

 sacrifice of what goes to make up general good shape. Mr. Boreham and 

 others, with whom I have exchanged ideas on the subject, agree with me 

 in this, while many pay no regard to size if a bird flies well. The best 

 croppers I have seen were of a medium size, but there is little difference 

 in size between the largest and smallest birds of the pure breed. 



Shape. — "While it would take the best parts of several first-class 

 English pouters to make up such a pigeon as my drawing represents, 

 I have seen many croppers quite equal in outline to my illustration. 

 The crop in these pigeons is, for the most part, far better de^ 

 veloped than in pouters, their respective sizes considered ; indeed, 

 many of these beautiful little pigeons have crops that would be con 

 sidered good in a large pouter. The crop, or bladder as it is called in 

 Norwich, is often as round as a ball, even filling out behind the 

 neck, so that a perfectly spherical shape is sometimes attained by it, 

 and in it, as Moore says of the uploper, the bird "generally buries its 

 BiU." The legs should be entirely free of feathers ; but about half 

 the number of croppers I have seen and possessed have had some short 

 feathers down the outsides of the legs and on the middle toes, which I 

 consider so far faulty, the bare-legged birds being very much smarter in 

 appearance. However, as some of the best birds are slightly feather- 

 legged, they are not to be discarded on this account. Flight being con- 

 sidered all in all by many cropper fanciers, feathered legs are of little 

 •consequence ; at the same time, bare legs are allowed to be correct. I 

 have not seen any pure croppers completely stocking-legged, and the more 

 they are so the worse they look. No doubt the pouter is vastly unproved 

 with completely feathered stocking limbs ; but, as I have shown, it was 

 baje-legged in Moore's time. The little cropper having, however, quite 



