Chap. V. DESCRIPTION OF BEEEDS. 143 



hereafter to be described), may be confidently viewed, as we 

 shall see in the next chapter, as the common parent-form. 

 The names in italics on the right-hand side of the page show 

 us the most distinct breeds, or those which have undergone 

 the greatest amount of modification. The lengths of the 

 dotted lines rudely represent the degree of distinctness of 

 each breed from the parent -stock, and the names placed 

 under each other in the columns show the more or less 

 closely connecting links. The distances of the dotted lines 

 from each other approximately represent the amount of 

 difference between the several breeds. 



Group I. 



This group includes a single race, that of the Pouters. If 

 the most strongly marked sub-race be taken, namely, the 

 Improved English Pouter, this is perhaps the most distinct 

 of all domesticated pigeons. 



Race I. — Pouter Pigeons. (Kropftauben, German. Grosses- 

 gorges, or boulans, French.) 



Oesophagus of great size, barely separated from the crop, often 

 inflated. Body and legs elongated. Beak of moderate dimen- 

 sions. 



Sub-race 1. — The" improved English Pouter, when its crop is fully 

 inflated, presents a truly astonishing appearance. The habit of 

 slightly inflating the crop is common to all domestic pigeons, but 

 is carried to an extreme in the Pouter. The crop does not differ, 

 except in size, from that of other pigeons ; but is less plainly 

 separated by an oblique constriction from the oesophagus. The 

 diameter of the upper part of the oesophagus is immense, even close 

 up to the head. The beak in one bird which I possessed was 

 almost completely buried when the oesophagus was fully expanded. 

 The males, especially when excited, pout more than the females, 

 and they glory in exercising this power. If a bird will not, to use 

 the technical expression, " play," the fancier, as I have witnessed, 

 by taking the beak into his mouth, blows him up like a balloon ; 

 and the bird, then puffed up with wind and pride, struts about, 

 retaining his magnificent size as long as he can. Pouters often 

 take flight with their crops inflated. After one of my birds had 

 swallowed a good meal of peas and water, as he flew up in order to 

 disgorge them and feed his nearly fledged young, I heard the peas 

 rattling in his inflated crop as if in a bladder. When flying, they 



