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FANCIERS’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 
dispatch five or six, so that by this means dispatches are 
sent in a more safe and speedy method than could possibly 
he otherwise contrived. 
N.B. — If a pigeon he not practiced when young, the best 
of them will fly hut very indifferently, and may very possi- 
bly be lost. 
Lithgow in his travels gives the following remarkable 
account. After having told us of pigeons that in forty-eight 
hours would carry a letter from Babylon to Aleppo, which 
is thirty days’ journey, he proceeds thus: “ The city Ptole- 
mais was besieged by the French and Venetian armies, and 
was ready to fall into their hands, when the soldiers beheld 
a pigeon flying over them to the city, who thereupon set up 
so sudden and so great a shout, that down fell the poor airy 
post with her letter, which, being read, was found to contain 
that the sultan was coming towards them with an army 
sufficient to raise the siege, and would be with them in three 
days. The Christians having learnt this, sent away the 
pigeon with another letter to this effect, that they should see 
to their safety, for that the sultan had such other important 
affairs as rendered it impossible that he should come to their 
relief. Upon the reception of this letter the city was imme- 
diately surrendered to the Christians. Upon the third day 
the sultan arrived according to his promise, but perceiving 
how matters went, returned again with his army.” 
That passage of making the pigeon fall to the ground by 
the shout of the soldiers, seems a little too much to savor of 
Romish superstition; for it appears a little unphilosophical 
to imagine that the air could be so far broke by a shout as 
to render the strong pinions of so swift a bird useless. 
Ovid likewise, in his “ Book of Metamorphoses/’ tells us 
that Taurosthenes, by a pigeon stained with purple, gave 
notice of his victory at the Olympic games, the very same 
day on which he gained it, to his father at HCgina. 
Willoughby also in his “Ornithology,” and with that I 
shall conclude the account of this bird, produces the example 
of the ancients in making use of pigeons for the conveyance 
of letters ; thus Hiritius and Brutus at the siege of Modena, 
by means of pigeons, held a mutual correspondence with 
each other. 
COLUMBA TABELLARIA MINOR. 
The Horseman. 
This pigeon in shape and make very much resembles the 
Carrier, only it is smaller in all its properties, viz., some- 
what less in body, shorter necked, the protuberant flesh upon 
the beak smaller, as likewise that round the eye, so that 
there remains a larger space or distance between the wattle 
and the eye in this pigeon than in the Carrier. They are 
generally more inclined to be barrel-headed, and their eye 
somewhat pinched. 
It is to this day a matter of dispute whether this be an 
original pigeon, or whether it be not a bastard strain, bred 
between a Carrier and a Tumbler, or a Carrier and a Pouter, 
and so bred over again from a Carrier, and the oftener it is 
thus bred, the stouter the Horseman becomes. 
The only thing that seems inclinable to favor the opinion, 
that they are original, is a strain of this kind brought over 
from Scanderoon, which will fly very great lengths and very 
swift; but still the answer readily occurs that they may be 
bred originally the same way at Scanderoon, and so trans- 
mitted us; however, “non nostrum est inter vos tantas 
componere lites,” — that is, “ we shan’t take upon us to 
determine such controversies as these.” 
There are of this kind of all manner of feathers ; but the 
blue and blue pieds are most noted to be genuine and good, 
and if flown are very good breeders. 
These are one of the sorts of pigeons that are chiefly made 
use of in England for the carriage of letters, or flying of 
wagers, because those that are possessed of the true original 
Carriers, which are at present very scarce here, pay too dear, 
and have too great a value for them to risk their being lost 
upon every trifling wager. 
These pigeons, when regularly flown twice on a day, that 
is, turned out alone and put upon wing without any others 
will fly very large circumferences, so that after they have 
made a tour or two round your own house they will fly four 
or five miles out at. length, and so maintain the circuit for 
an hour or two. This the Fanciers call going an end, and 
is what Daniel Moggs, who was was of the older Fanciers, 
meant, when he jocularly used to bid his pigeons maintain 
their length. 
This practice is of admirable service to them when they 
come to be trained for the homing part. 
COLUMBA TABELLARIA MINIMA. 
The Dragon. 
This pigeon is absolutely and without dispute a bastard 
strain, being bred originally from a Horseman to a Tumbler, 
and by matching their breed often to the Horseman, they 
will obtain a tolerable degree of stoutness. 
This pigeon is a very good breeder, and as they are some- 
what less than a Horseman, are reckoned lighter and more 
expeditious in their flight for ten or twenty miles ; but the 
Horseman, if good, will generally outdo them at a greater 
length. They ought to be flown and trained like the fore- 
going. 
COLUMBA GUTTUROSA BATAVIA5. 
The Dutch Cropper. 
This pigeon seems to be originally Dutch, being naturally 
thick ; and its name is derived from a large bag, or crop of 
wind, which they carry under their beak, and can at pleasure 
either raise or depress. They are thick-bodied and short ; 
their legs are likewise thick, short, and feathered down to 
their feet; their crop is large, but always hang low; the 
feathers on their thighs hang loose, whereby they are said 
to he flag-thighed ; their legs stand wide, and they seldom 
play upright; they are gravel-eyed, and are generally very 
bad feeders; therefore, as soon as they have fed oft' then- 
soft meat, it is proper to put their young ones under a pair 
of small Runts, Dragons, or Pouting-horsemen, which may 
be kept as nurses for the purpose. 
There are all sorts of feathers in this pigeon, and the 
Dutch in breeding it take a very great care ; for as soon as 
they have fed off their soft meat, they put their young ones 
under others to nurse, and then separate their old ones, 
placing them in different coops, and feeding them high with 
hemp or rapeseed for a month, then turning them together, 
and by being very hearty and salacious, they breed pigeons 
with very good properties ; from whence we may observe, 
that would mankind be alike abstemious, their progeny 
might be more complete both in body and mind. 
These are the pigeons that are most apt to gorge, if not 
kept constantly supplied with meat and water. 
