,1 I'KiKONS AND ALL AliOUT TliKM. 



AS TO COLOR. 



TliK I'Mn-ier who is deciding on what particular variety 

 to breed, should study his surroundings ;ind then let 

 "color" be an important factor. 



It he lives in the country or in a small village, where the 

 air is pure and there is no soot and coal smoke, he can thank 

 his stars, for he will be able to handle any color he likes. 



But if he lives in a city, he had best not dabble in whites 

 or in any breed the beauty of which consists in a sharp con- 

 trast of colors, with white predominating. I will modify this 

 by stating that I have seen grand white birds keep their color 

 the entire year, in cities that use natural gas. 



But in the great majority of cities and especially in the 

 north, I defy any fancier to find a loft so close that his white 

 birds can keep clean in the winter. He may dispense entire- 

 ly with an air coop and keep his birds in a plastered room and 

 yet they somehow manage to soil. 



In such birds as the Magpie, Nun, Swallow, Priest, Tur- 

 bit, Jacobin and all others of that class the basis of the color- 

 is white. In most of them the beauty of the birds lies in 

 their sharp marking, and once soiled they lose their beauty. 

 The same is greatly true of Fan tails, (whites and saddles,) 

 I 1 . niters and many other 1 ree.ls. 



Therefore if the fancier proposes to have a loft of flying 

 birds, he should choose ".-elf" or solid color, dark colored 

 birds. While a loft of blacks, reds or blues may have become 

 nearly as badly soiled as whites, still it is natural that the 

 dirt will not show as much as in whites. The Archangel is a 

 bird that docs not show dirt readily, yet when its beautiful 

 meta lie lu^hv is gone, half of its beauty is lost. But if we 

 cannot have perfection, we can strive to get as near it as pos- 

 sible, and so 1 would say, select biids that will look as well 

 conditions considered. 



