BLUETTES AND SILVERETTES. 



The same may be said of the Silverette, the 

 shade of the colour being much softer than one 

 finds in silver Pigeons of any kind . In the matter 

 of bar, we have considerably improved upon it 

 since they were first introduced. I say we, but 

 I do not wish to give English breeders all the 

 credit for that, as undoubtedly the Eastern 

 fanciers gave us a good lift in that direction, as 

 I will explain. 



But I think it best to inform my young 

 friends that when Bluettes and Silverettes first 

 came to this country, they had what were termed 

 tri -coloured bars. That is, a bar of three colours. 

 The bar itself was a very pale, pinky colour, not 

 absolutely white, edged with a decided pink, and 

 then a further edging of black, which undoubted- 

 ly was very pretty. 



I remember seeing about 25 to 30 such birds 

 in one aviary at Acocks Green, near Birmingham, 

 about 30 years ago. They made a very pretty 

 show. But none of them had the pure white bar 

 with black edging, such as we have in our best 

 birds of to-day. 



About twenty years ago, through the agency 

 of my friend, Mr. Fred Ashford, of Saxmundham, 

 I obtained a Silverette cock, plain headed, and 

 a crested Bluette hen . The cock had a big strong 

 head and beak, but was a bit grizzly in colour 

 and rusty in bar. The hen was a gem, and hard 

 to find fault with — superb colour on wings, 

 lovelv bar, but not so white as we have them to- 



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