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Haha. I love that "Pigeon fancier" is the actual dictionary term for someone that keeps and breeds pigeons.

Fancy pigeons is another term of art. Similar to thoroughbred, a fancy pigeon is a pigeon with a breeding objective. I imagine the term pigeon fancier was derived from it: someone who breeds fancy pigeons.

Darwin was a pigeon fancier [0]. He was working on theories of sexual selection.

It's interesting that terms like "fit" and "fancy", as used by British teenagers are so apt.

[0] https://www.jstor.org/stable/230968

Here's some portraits of fancy pigeons I made back in the day: https://www.daviddegner.com/photography/fancy-pigeons/

These are incredible!

You are very talented, I love the contrast of these shots! Thank you for documenting the world at large. You are a true science historian :-)

I remember pet stores used to have a magazine by the checkout called Cat Fancy and I always thought that was a funny title. Now it makes some sense.

I could never not laugh when seeing that magazine. I’d just imagine a wealthy person sipping tea and reading Cat Fancy through their monocle in an opulent mansion.

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