PIGEONS AXD ALL ABOUT THEM. 200 



The eye should be full and prominent, and should have a 

 wild, alert look, as if the bird were ready to spring into the 

 air at the slightest motion. 



The beak is long and thick and nearly straight, the meas- 

 urement being two inches from the eye to the tip. 



The neck is long and slender, aud with a clean gullet. The 

 breast is broad and full, and the shoulders very square, with 

 prominent wing butts. The wings and tail are long, and the 

 thighs muscular, with long, strong looking legs. The feet 

 are also large and muscular looking. 



Black and Dun Carriers have always seemed the most pop- 

 ular bieeds, but the white now seems to be quite the fancy. 

 In blacks and blues the eye should be dark red. In whites 

 it should be dark, or. bull-eye, and in Yellows, Reds and 

 Duns it should be a pearl. 



The great point is to breed a very long face aud then get 

 the proper wattle on it, but the same idea of getting '"length" 

 must also be applied to the bird. With a cock with a good 

 heavy wattle, and a hen that maybe somewhat lacking in 

 this respect, it is possible to get good young, provided the 

 hen is a good raugey bird. 



The Carrier is emphatically a show bird, and is rarely bred 

 save in confinement. 



Before a show the greatest attention should be paid to 

 these birds. Every feather should be clean and in place, and 

 the wattles should not -show the least particle of dirt. In 

 cleaning the beak and eye wattles it is best to do so several 

 days before a show in order that the bird may have the tint 

 that nature has put on. 



