[f. CROP sb.1 + -ER1.] A breed of pigeons having the power of greatly distending or puffing up their crops; a pouter.
1655. Walton, Angler, 101. There be Cropers, Carryers, Runts.
1678. Ray, Willughby’s Ornith., II. xv. § 2. 181. Pigeons…. Croppers, so called because they can, and usually do, by attracting the Air, blow up their Crops to that strange bigness that they exceed the bulk of the whole body beside.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1860), II. IV. viii. 126.
1850. E. S. Dixon, in Tegetmeier, Pigeons, v. (1867), 54. Pouters … Provincially they are called Croppers.
1891. Daily News, 7 Jan., 3/4. Those Norwich croppers are not half so puffed up as they seem.
