302 Fancy Pigeons. 



character than I had before seen. The thought then struck me, had I 

 possessed one of them at the time I began, I might have saved years in 

 the manufacture of my pigmies ; but this may be doubtful. However, I 

 never had one in my possession until this season, when I bought three 

 from Mr. Boreham, after he had supplied you with the best specimens he 

 got at Norwich or Yarmouth. I am now giving them up, having no 

 opportunity of witnessing their flying powers, and I cannot agree with 

 you in admiring their other properties in preference to the pigmy. 



"In reply to your inquiry how I bred my much admired black-pied 

 pigmy, I may state, briefly, by in-hreeding and selection of the most 

 diminutive and pouter like birds for the last 14 years. Its genealogical 

 family tree, as far as I can trace it, starts from a whole-coloured 

 blue Austrian pouter cock I bought in 1866, from the late Mr. Evans, 

 of the Borough, at that time a good pouter fancier. This bird was 

 quite bare on shanks, and nearly so on toes ; but very small and of fine 

 form. I mated him to a blue pouter hen, a weed, small, gay in marking, 

 and well feathered on limbs and toes, determined to try to breed dwiirf 

 pouters on the same principle as game bantams were produced. I in- 

 bred for five years, and then obtained a whole-coloured, mealy-chequered 

 cock with good limbs and toe feathering, finding it more difficult to 

 obtain the latter points than correct markings. I mated him to my 

 best pied hen, and from them got whole-coloured and foul-marked dun, 

 mealy, satinette, and other nondescript colours. In-breeding then for 

 some years with the blue-pieda, they produced some black and blue 

 splashes, some dark, others nearly white. From two black splashed 

 cocks, mated to a silver and a blue-pied hen, in one season was produced 

 two blacks, a cock and hen, which are the parents of the little black-pied 

 wonder. Its dimensions are, length of limb 5»in. ; length of feather 

 13:fin. There are bred from it this season, two black-pieds, two 

 blue-pieds, two black and one blue splashes, all small and stylish ; but 

 none equal to the parent in markings, or combination of pouter 

 properties ; still, I do not despair of producing other equally perfect 

 specimens of the miniature pouter of the period." 



With reference to the above, not having seen the bird described, I 

 cannot make any comparison between it and a good cropper ; all I can 

 say is that I prefer such croppers as I have to any foreign pigmy pouters 

 I have seen. Knowing that a pouter with Tin. limbs, properly shaped and 



