Mr. Ure on Pouter-breeding. 
103 
will, to keep the hen from laying too soon. Some also think it necessary to separate the birds 
during winter ; this I never had sufficient accommodation to do, though I have tried it to a 
small extent. The result has been that I would not do so if I could. The birds keep in better 
health and spirits together, and if all nesting facilities are removed, there will be little or no 
attempt at breeding. 
“As to food, old but well kept tares and beans, with a limited supply of Indian corn, is the 
feeding I use, with a little hard old wheat when feeding young. Old grey peas are also good, and 
I have used white peas at times. Avoid hempseed as you would poison. Give plenty of old lime 
rubbish and gravel, and once or twice a week a little coarse salt, and water to bathe in about as 
often. Gorging is a nasty habit with some birds, those with large crops in particular being subject 
to it. The old cure of the stocking is the best, penning the bird for a day or two after with a 
limited allowance of food and water. This is the only disease (if it can be called so) peculiar to 
Pouters, the others are shared in alike by all the varieties, and my experience leads me to believe 
that pigeon diseases are, if serious, very seldom cured. 
“ It is not often Pouters can be flown, but where this liberty can be given it is beyond question 
an advantage, only they should not get out in a high wind or on a very wet day. The well- 
bred light birds fly well, and seem to enjoy it. Another thing I would caution young fanciers 
against is, when they breed a very fine bird, not to over show it. Twice or thrice in a season is 
enough ; many fine birds have been lost to the fancy from this error. A genuine fancier, by which 
I mean a ‘ breeding’ one, does not care for showing much. 
“ Before closing, I should like to say a word or two about what I think an error in judging 
Pouters — in England, I believe, more often than in Scotland — that is, in giving prizes to Whites 
in a class for all colours. Unless Whites are a very long way indeed better than the pied birds 
they ought not to be placed above them ; it is so much more difficult to breed a fine pied bird, 
and so much more beautiful when of fair quality than the White, which is deficient in the beautiful 
properties of colour and marking. No one that has kept and bred Pouters will make this mistake, 
and it is only those who have done so that are fit to judge them. 
“ There is a wide field for the Pouter fancier, and, however able and skilful he may be, he is 
not likely to reach its limits of improvement in a lifetime. There will always be some little bit 
that wants looking to, and so keeps his energies from flagging. There is very little hope for a long 
time that he can sit dawn and say, ‘ There is nothing more to do.’ To those, therefore, who are 
pigeon-wards inclined, I would say, ‘ Take up the Pouter;’ it is a fancy mine that has not been 
worked for many years so extensively as it ought to have been, but it will amply repay the 
re-opening to every intelligent, persevering fancier. May their number soon be legion ! 
“ In conclusion, I would say to the jaded and worn professional or mercantile man with over- 
worked brains, and to the working man with toil-worn body, ‘ Go into the pigeon-fancy, even if 
only a single pair can be kept.’ The higher classes of birds require an amount of mind to breed 
them well not to be despised by the greatest ; and the cares and anxieties are so different from 
the cares and worries of life, that they forget them all when they breed a first-rate bird — especially 
if it be a Pouter l' 
In our own remarks upon this pigeon we find it most convenient to begin with the crop, as the 
point which gives the character to the whole pigeon, though we fully agree with Mr. Ure that it is 
not the most important property. All pigeons have some power of inflating the crop, or globe 
as we would prefer to call it, which is seen in nearly all the cock birds when “ playing up ” 
to their hens, just as the Pouter himself makes the most of his when in the same circumstances 
