142 THE PRACTICAL PIGEON KEEPER. 



but was long-cropped and not large, short-bodied, short-legged, 

 and thick in girth : its peculiarity lying in the plumage, which 

 resembled fine Irish stitch, chequered with various colours iu 

 every feather. The Uploper resembled an English Pouter iu 

 all but size, which was small, the legs particularly so, and 

 derived its name from the cook's habit of leaping towards the 

 hen. Lastly, he refers to the Pouting Horseman, a cross kept 

 up to improve Pouters from time to time by making them 

 close-thighed. All these varieties seem to have disappeared, 

 except so far as the smaller of them may have helped in the 

 manufacture of Pigmy Pouters. 



The London weavers generally have the credit of bringing 

 the Pouter to perfection ; but although we do not wish to 

 disturb the old traditions which give them this honour, we 

 think it right to put on record the fact that many inquiries 

 have traced the Pouter fancy very far back indeed to the city 

 of Norwich, though it has long since departed thence in favour 

 of Canaries. That Pouters — and first-class ones too — were bred 

 in Norwich very long ago we think there is no doubt, and 

 from thence the fancy spread to Great Yarmouth ; but whether 

 or not Norwich ante-dated the Spitalfields sUk-weavers, no 

 information we have been able to obtain can determine. It is, 

 however, certain that at a later date, with the ruin of their 

 handicraft, the London weavers had to part with their birds, 

 which have since been kept up mainly by Scotch fanciers. The 

 Pouter is, in fact, the favourite pigeon in Scotland, where 

 it is bred in immense numbers. For years the variety was 

 quite neglected in London, only Mr. Volckman cultivating 

 it for a short time ; but of late it has been taken up by Mr. 

 Gresham, Captain Hill, and others, and rarely fails to be well 

 represented at the shows of the National Peristeronic Society. 



The properties of the Pouter — as such, and apart from 

 colour — are described by Moore as exactly the same now 

 known ; but modem fanciers difier from him in the order of 



