180 Pigeons and All About Them. 



legs of the Cropper should be shorter and straighter 

 than those of the Pouter. A Cropper must not have 

 the appearance of being on stilts. Its crop is rather 

 more globular than that of the Pouter, esi>ecially on 

 the under portion, coming sharper into the bod}' than 

 does the crop of the Pouter, due, no doubt, in great 

 measure, to the fact that the Cropper is straighter in 

 body than the Pouter. 



The colours are Blacks, Blues, Reds, Yellows, 

 Silvers, Duns, Mealies, and Strawberries, with chequers 

 from the Blacks, Duns, Reds and Silvers. 



During the show season Pouters, Pigmies, and 

 Croppers are usuallj- kept in pens, and not given their 

 liberty.' 



FOREIGN CROPPERS. 



On the Continent there are a number of Pouters 

 or Croppers such as the French Pouter, the Austrian 

 Brunner, the Saxon Cropper, the Pomeranian Crop- 

 per, the Dutch Cropper, and the Holle Cropper, but 

 of these the only one that may be said to be known 

 and kept in this country is the Holle Cropper, de- 

 scribed by Mr. J. C. Tyell as the Dutch Balloon 

 Cropper, or " Die Hollandische Ballonkropftaube," 

 and from the description given of it in "Fancy 

 Pigeons," I should say that Mr. Tyell not being per- 

 sonally acquainted with the breed copied the same 

 from some German work on Pigeons. 



The Holle Cropper is a small, round bodied 

 Pigeon, similar in shape to the Fantail, except in its 

 caudal appendage, has a certain amount of the 

 tremulous action of the Fantail, its head is thrown 

 back in the same manner, and rests lighth' in the 

 middle of its crop. It has short flights and tail, short 

 legs, and walks in the same graceful yet jaunty 

 manner as the Fantail. Its chest is round and full, 

 and the crop instead of protruding from the front of 

 the bird as in all other Croppers, is held upright 

 above the shoulders. The crop is in keeping with 

 the size of the bird, and is round in shape. It is a 

 grave fault for a bird to be over-cropped, even as it 

 is for it to b-e under-cropped. Symmetrj^ and pro- 

 portion are the great essentials. In Holland it is 



