THE ENGLISH POUTER. 55 



with is the fish which blows itself out with ah, and then floats on the surface of 

 the sea, belly upwards. 



" I cannot agree with those who think the gait and appearance of Cropper pigeons 

 at all displeasing or unnatural, although they certainly are a very marked and 

 peculiar style of bird. We can admire the classic figure of Atlas with the globe 

 upon his shoulders ; the Cropper is an Atlas wearing the globe under his shirt- 

 front. He has indeed something of a military air, and requires but a few 

 finishing touches from a drilling-master to make his demeanour perfect in 

 formality and politeness. We have seen gentlemen belonging to Her Majesty's 

 army, whose back-thrown head, super-erect carriage, taper waist, and well-padded 

 breast, brought them very much to the model of a gigantic Cropper, and whose 

 countenances betrayed no dissatisfaction with their own personal appearance ; and 

 a style of beauty which contents a man, may surely be allowed to please a bird. 

 The feathered legs and the sweeping tail may be supposed to complete the 

 likeness, by representing spurs and dangling and trailing what-nots. 



" The flight also of the- Cropper is stately and dignified in its way. The inflated 

 crop is not generally collapsed by the exertion, but is seen to move slowly forward 

 through the air, like a large permanent soap-bubble, with a body and wings 

 attached to it. The bird is fond of clapping his wings loudly at first starting to 

 take his few lazy rounds in the air ; for he is too much of a fine gentleman 

 to condescend to violent exertion. Other pigeons will indulge in the same action 

 in a less degree, but Croppers are the claqueurs par excellence ; and hence we 

 believe the Smiters of Willughby to be only a synonym of the present kind. He 

 says, ' I take these to be those, which the fore-mentioned Hollander told 

 Aldrovandus, that his countrymen called Draiiers. These do not only shake their 

 wings as they fly, but also flying round about in a ring, especially over their 

 females, clap them so strongly, that they make a greater sound than two 

 battledores or other boards struck one against another. Whence it comes to pass, 

 that their quill-feathers are almost always broken and shattered ; and sometimes 

 so bad, that they cannot fly.' 



" Smiters and Croppers, or something very like them, must have been known 

 and kept so long back even as Pliny's time. ''Nosse credas suos colores, varieta- 

 temque dispositam : quin etiam ex volatu quseritur plaudere in ecelo, varieque 

 sulcare. Qua in ostentatione, ut vinctae, praebentur accipitri, implicatis strepitu 

 pennis, qui non nisi ipsis alarum humeris eliditur.' ' You would think they were 

 conscious of their own colours, and the variety with which they are disposed : 

 nay, they even attempt- to make their flight a means, of clapping in the air, and 

 tracing various courses in it. By which ostentation they are betrayed to the 

 power of the Hawk, as if bound, their feathers being entangled in the action of 

 making the noise, which is produced only by the actual shoulders of their wings. 

 (Lib. x. 52.) 



"Pouters are of various colours; the most usual are blue, buff (vulgd cloth), 

 splashed in various mixtures, and white. Pure white Pouters are really 



