e alone is feathered. A variety of this sub-race,
called the claquant, is described by MM. Boitard and Corbie; it pouts
but little, and is characterised {139} by the habit of violently
hitting its wings together over its back,--a habit which the English
Pouter has in a slight degree.

_Sub-race IV. Common German Pouter._--I know this bird only from the
figures and description given by the accurate Neumeister, one of the
few writers on pigeons who, as I have found, may be always trusted.
This sub-race seems considerably different. The upper part of the
oesophagus is much less distended. The bird stands less upright. The
feet are not feathered, and the legs and beak are shorter. In these
respects there is an approach in form to the common rock-pigeon. The
tail-feathers are very long, yet the tips of the closed wings extend
beyond the end of the tail; and the length of the wings, from tip to
tip, and of the body, is greater than in the English Pouter.

GROUP II.

This group includes three Races, namely, Carriers, Runts, and Barbs, which
are manifestly allied to each other. Indeed, certain carriers and runts
pass into each other by such insensible gradations that an arbitrary line
has to be drawn between them. Carriers also graduate through foreign breeds
into the rock-pigeon. Yet, if well-characterised Carriers and Barbs (see
figs. 19 and 20) had existed as wild species, no ornithologist would have
placed them in the same genus with each other or with the rock-pigeon. This
group may, as a general rule, be recognised by the beak being long, with
the skin over the nostrils swollen and often carunculated or wattled, and
with that round the eyes bare and likewise carunculated. The mouth is very
wide, and the feet are large. Nevertheless the Barb, which must be classed
in this same group, has a very short beak, and some runts have very little
bare skin round their eyes.

RACE II.--CARRIERS. (Tuerkische Taube: Pigeons Turcs: Dragons.)

_Beak elongated, narrow, pointed; eyes surrounded by much naked, generally
carunculated skin; neck and body elongated._

[Illustration: Fig. 19.--English Carrier.]

_Sub-race I. The English Carrier._--This is a fine bird, of large size,
close feathered, generally dark-coloured, with an elongated neck. The
beak is attenuated and of wonderful length: in one specimen it was 1.4
inch in length from the feathered base to the