Foreign Pigmy Croppers. 319 



a loftful of these lively, neat, and amorous pigeons, among which there 

 is no end of courting and caressing. The loving cock drives the hen 

 before him, all the while inflating his crop and cooing, while she walks 

 forward in proud decorum. It flies lightly, quickly, and with flapping 

 wings, and is very persevering in its flight ; in this the inflated crop 

 helps, for it happens that the Briinn cropper can float for from 50 to 

 60 steps in the air, holding its spread wings high over its back without 

 moving them. No other pigeon is able to do so for so long a distance. 

 Generally speaking its flight differs from that of other pigeons. If a 

 swarm of these croppers fly, it is clearly seen how fond they are of it. It 

 is for them a pleasure to fly in wide circles around their house for half 

 an hour. The Briinn cropper, when affected, runs on high legs as if on 

 stilts, standing even on its toes, and inflating its round crop so fuU that 

 it reaches a diameter of 7i centimetres " (3 inches). 



The length of the Briinn cropper, llin., seems out of all proportion to 

 its limb, and 1 think, considering the weight of the bird, it is mis-stated. 

 Compared with our Norwich cropper it is doubtless a smaller and more 

 slender pigeon, but those I have had were very little less than my best 

 croppers, which attained a diameter in crop up to 5in., 42in. being com- 

 monly seen. The Briinn cropper is certainly smaller in girth, and shows its 

 thighs more than the cropper, but its habit of crossing its wings is a bad 

 fault in my^opinion. I had one Isabel coloured Briinner hen which did not 

 have this fault, and some who saw her considered her one of the best shaped 

 little pouters they had seen. She was 5iin. in limb, and 14|-in. in feather, 

 but had only a small crop compared with that of a good Norwich cropper. 



"Die Prager Kropftaube " (the Prague cropper), "also called the 

 Stork cropper, is not much larger than the Briinner, the legs are of the 

 same height, and, along with the toes, somewhat feathered. It is either 

 one coloured with white wing-bars, or like a stork, white with mottled, 

 mostly reddish-brown breast, flights, and tail. It comes from Bohemia, 

 and frequently very strong blowers are found among them." 



This pigeon, of which Neumeister gives a coloured portrait, is 

 represented as a bare-legged, very upstanding cropper, with red crop, 

 flights, and tail. The head and upper neck are light, the colour gradually 

 deepening towards the lower neck. 



" Die HoUdndische Ballonkropftaube " (the Dutch Balloon cropper) 

 " is, in the first place, distinguished from all other croppers by its 



