English Pouter
The English Pouter is a breed of fancy pigeon developed over many years of selective breeding. English Pouters, along with other varieties of domesticated pigeons, are all descendants from the rock pigeon. A breed with an enlarged crop, their distinctiveness was described by Charles Darwin in The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication.
History
William Bernhardt Tegetmeier proposed that the English Pouter originated from cross breeding the old pigeon breeds the Dutch Cropper, Uploper and the Parisian Pouter. Each of these breeds is described in works dating from the 17th century. However, in an earlier account, John Moore suggested that the breed was the result of cross breeding between a type of cropper and horseman. Historically, the English Pouter was also called the Pouting Horseman, due to the links with the Horseman breed. The modern breeds of croppers, such as the Norwich Cropper, originate from the English Pouter.Charles Darwin described the English Pouter in his 1868 work The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, saying that the breed was "perhaps the most distinct of all domesticated pigeons".