SIR EDWARD HOWE
December 1795
187
Chapter V
Breeds native to the British Isles-Common breeds-Relation to Continental breeds-The effect
of modern diet upon size-Heredity of Regal Copper-Venomous and Vitriolic breeds .
... IT IS AS well to recollect that Yellow Reapers, so often unjustly regarded with that
contempt engendered by familiarity, are to be found everywhere because of their many
excellent qualities: generally hardy and not fastidious in their diet, untroubled by all but the
worst extremes of heat or cold, almost invariably good-humoured in character, they have
contributed to almost every bloodline in these Isles. These dragons fall squarely into the
middle-weight range, though they range more widely within the breed than most, from a
weight of some 10 tonnes to as many as 17, in a recent large specimen. Ordinarily they fall
between 12 and 15 tonnes, with a length generally of 50 feet, and a nicely proportioned
wingspan of 80 feet.
Malachite Reapers are most easily distinguished from their more common cousins by
colouration: while Yellow Reapers are mottled yellow, sometimes with white tiger-striping
along their sides and wings, Malachite Reapers are a more muted yellow-brown with pale
green markings. They are generally believed to be the result of unguided interbreeding
during the Anglo-Saxon conquests between Yellow Reapers and Scandinavian Lindorms.
Preferring cooler climes, they are generally to be found in north-eastern Scotland.
From hunting records and bone collections, we know that the Grey Widowmaker breed was
once very nearly as common as the Reapers, though now they are rarely to be found; this
breed being so violently intractable and given to stealing domesticated cattle has been made
nearly extinct through hunting, though some individuals may be found living wild even to
this day in isolated mountainous regions, particularly in Scotland, and a few more have been
coaxed into breeding grounds to preserve as basic stock. They are small and aggressive by
nature, rarely exceeding 8 tonnes, and their colouration of mottled grey is ideal for
concealment while flying, which inspired their cross-breeding with the more even-tempered Winchesters to produce the Greyling breed.
The most common French breeds, the Pêcheur-Couronné and Pêcheur-Rayé, are more
closely related to the Widowmaker breed than to the Reapers, if we may judge by wing
conformation and the structure of the breast-bone, which in both breeds is keeled and fused
with the clavicle. This anatomical peculiarity renders them both more useful for breeding
down into light-combat and courier breeds, rather than into heavy-combat breeds...
Cross-breeding with Continental species is also the source of all the heavy-weight breeds
now to be found in Britain, none of which can be considered properly native to our shores.
Most likely this is due to climate: heavier dragons greatly prefer warm environs, where
their air-sacs can more easily compensate for their tremendous weight. It has been
suggested that the British Isles cannot support herds vast enough to sustain the largest
breeds; the flaws to this chain of reasoning may be shown by consideration of the very wide
variations in diet to be tolerated among dragons insofar as quantity is concerned.
In the wild, it is well known, dragons eat so infrequently as once every two weeks,
particularly in summer when they prefer to sleep a great deal and their natural prey are at
their fattest; it will then come as no surprise to learn that dragons in the wild do not begin
to approach the sizes which can be found among their domesticated cousins, fed daily and
188
more, particularly during the early years so critical to growth.
By way of example we have only to consider the barren desert regions of Almería in the
south-east of Spain, scantly inhabited by goats, which are the native grounds of the fierce
Cauchador Real, part ancestor of our own Regal Copper; in domestication this breed reaches
a fighting weight of some 25 tonnes, but in the wild is scarcely to be found over 10 or 12
tonnes...
The Regal Copper exceeds in size all other breeds presently known, reaching in maturity as
many as 50 tonnes in weight and 120 feet in length. They are dramatic in colour, shading
from red to yellow with much variation between individuals. The male of the species is on
the average slightly smaller than the female and develops forehead horns in maturity; both
sexes have a marked spiny column along the back, which renders them particularly
hazardous targets for boarding operations.
These great beasts are unquestionably the greatest triumph of the British breeding grounds,
the product of some ten generations' labour and careful cross-breeding, and illustrative of
the unanticipated benefits which may be yielded by matings not perhaps of obvious value. It
was Roger Bacon who first proposed the notion of breeding females of the smaller Bright
Copper species to the great sire Conquistador, brought to England as part of the dowry of
Eleanor of Castile. Though his suggestions were founded in the erroneous supposition of the
time, which thought colour to be indicative of some elemental influence, and the shared
orange colour of the two breeds a sign of underlying congruence, the cross was a fruitful
one, leading to offspring even larger than their prodigious sire, and better able to sustain
flight over distance.
Mr. Josiah Colquhoun of Glasgow has suggested that the disproportionate size of the air-sacs
of the Bright Copper, relative to their frame, properly deserves the credit for this success,
and it is certain that Regal Coppers share this trait of their female progenitors. M. Cuvier's
anatomical studies suggest that indeed the vast bulk of the Regal Copper would crush the
very breath out of the dragons' lungs, if unsupported by aught but their surprisingly
delicate skeletal systems...
While no pyrogenic species are to be found in the British Isles, despite many attempts on
the part of our breeders to induce this most valuable trait, so deadly to our shipping in the
persons of the French Flamme-de-Gloire and the Spanish Flecha-del-Fuego, the native
Sharpspitter breed is notable for producing a venom to incapacitate its prey. Though the
Sharpspitter itself is too small and low-flying to be of great value as a fighting beast, cross-breeding with the French Honneur-d'Or, for size, and with the Russian Ironwing, another
venomous species, yielded several valuable crosses: better fliers, middle-weight in size,
with more potent venom.
Interbreeding among these, with frequent infusions from the parent breeds, culminated in
the successful hatching of the first dragon which can properly be termed a Longwing, during
the reign of Henry VII. In this breed, the venom had become so potent as to be more
properly termed acid, and of a strength which could be turned not only against other beasts,
but against targets upon the ground. The only other truly vitriolic breeds known to us at
present are the Copacati, an Incan breed, and the Ka-Riu of Japan .
Longwings are unfortunately instantly identifiable upon the battlefield and impossible to
189
decoy, due to the unusual proportions for which they are named; though they rarely exceed
60 feet in length, wingspans of 120 feet are not uncommon among them, and their wing
colouration is particularly dramatic, shading from blue to orange, with vivid black-and-white striations at the rims. They possess the same yellow-orange eyes as their progenitor
the Sharpspitter, which are exceptionally good. Though the breed was first considered
intractable, and indeed some consideration was given to their destruction, as too dangerous
to be left unharnessed, during the reign of Elizabeth I new methods of harnessing were
developed which secured the general domestication of the breed, and they were
instrumental in the destruction of the Armada...