3i6 Fancy Pigeons. 



This concludes the account of the large continental croppers, as 

 gathered from the French and German writers named . 



The Indian Cropper. — I have seen, in Bengal, several croppers of a 

 breed which I believe is peculiar to that country. They were of a size 

 between the English pouter and Norvrich cropper, feathered on the lega, 

 but not roughly, and by no means very graceful looking pigeons. They 

 were called by a name which signifies swelled neck. Such as I saw were 

 either self-coloured blue, or blue-grizzled in colour. They were evidently 

 bred for crop alone, being short in limb and feather. Considering their 

 size, some of them had very large crops. They seemed to me to have no 

 connection with English pouters, several imported specimens of which 

 I have seen in Bengal from time to time. There are probably several 

 other varieties of croppers throughout India and adjacent countries. 



Tegetmeier says, at page 71 of his book on pigeons, regarding foreign 

 croppers : " Many of these birds are very prettily marked ; a pair, a short 

 time since, came into our posaeseion of a very bright yellow, with pure 

 white wings and flight-feathers, and well-defined white rings round the 

 necks." This marking nearly resembles that of the Prague magpie 

 cropper, already described, to which race they probably belonged. 



