54 PIGEONS. 



Temminck was apparently acquainted with the experimental researches of the 

 German fanciers, who, as he truly says, are possessed of such a degree of skill in 

 creating extraordinary markings, that there is scarcely a variety of plumage they 

 cannot produce. 



Leaving the older authors on the subject of the Pouter, we now have to consider 

 the more modern writers on the breed. 



In 1850, the Eev. Edward Saul Dixon published " The Dovecote and the 

 Aviary; being Sketches of the Natural History of Pigeons and other Domestic 

 Birds in a Captive State," London, John Murray. This work is distinguished by 

 considerable scholarly research, and a pleasant readable style ; but unfortunately 

 the author was neither a scientific naturalist nor an experienced fancier, and his 

 book was necessarily destitute of much practical value. 



A very large portion of the Eev. E. S. Dixon's work was afterwards reprinted in 

 a smaller treatise, published under another name, being issued as "Pigeons and 

 Rabbits, by E. S. Delamer." As the Rev. E. S. Dixon's original work was the 

 first, after that of Moore, that contained any novel remarks on the Pouter, we 

 reproduce his account, which is especially interesting as containing references to 

 Pliny, Willughby, and other ancient writers. Writing of this variety, he states : — 



" Pouters appear to us to be the most isolated of the domestic pigeons ; they bear 

 little resemblance to any of the other kinds, and it is difficult to say to which 

 breed they are most nearly related. If, as some writers have held, the inflation of the 

 crop is the peculiar distinction of the pigeon, Pouters ought to stand at the head 

 of the whole family of Columbidce. Provincially they are called Croppers, which 

 is not a vulgarism, but an old form of speech. 



" ' Croppers,' says Willughby, " ' so caUed because they can, and usually do, by 

 attracting the air, blow up their crops to that strange bigness, that they exceed 

 the bulk of the whole body beside ; and which, as they fly, and while they make 

 that murmuring noise, swell their throats to -a great bigness, and the bigger, 

 the better And more generous they are esteemed. Those I saw at Mr. Cope's, a 

 citizen of London, living in Jewin Street, seemed to me nothing bigger, but 

 something less than Runts, and somewhat more slender and long-bodied.'* 



" The hen Cropper also has an inflated crop like the male; the same in kind, 

 though less in degree. When zealous fanciers want to form an opinion of the 

 merits of a Cropper pigeon, they inflate the crop by applying the bird's mouth to 

 their own, .and Mowing into it, exactly as if they were filling a bladder with air, 

 till it is extended to the very utmost. Nor does the patient seem in the least to 

 dislike the operation, but the contrary ; and when set upon its legs, choke- 

 full of wind, it will endeavour to retain the charge as tightly as it can, and 

 appears actually to be pleased with, and proud of, the enormity of the natural 

 balloon which it carries about with it. The only analogous case I am acquainted 



* The figure of tlie Cropper given in Willughby 's "Ornithology" represents a short- legged 

 ordinary pigeon, that differs only from the other specimens delineated in having a large inflated 

 ■crop — W.B.T, 



