75 PIGEONS OF COLOUR. 



hocks, legs, and feet. The tipper mandible, according to the 

 German standard, should be white. This pigeon has the white 

 forehead spot, white tail and tail coverts. The head, neck, and 

 breast are dark blue-black, lustred with green and purple 

 hues ; the under body and leg-feathering should approach the 

 same colouring as much as possible ; and the flights are blue- 

 black, with a bronzed kite colouring on their inner webs. 

 The back and wing coverts, or shoulders, are of a burnished 

 copper colour, but only after the first moult, the nestling 

 feathers, as in other lustrous pigeons, being very dull com- 

 pared with the matured plumage. Mr. Ludlow says the English 

 Fire Pigeon is one of the varieties that show a sexual difference 

 in their colouring, the hens having their copper feathers 

 distinctly tipped with black, which the cocks do not. 

 Whether this difference exists all through the breed, or 

 only in one strain of it, I am not aware, but Neumeister 

 makes no mention of it. It is a matter of taste which of 

 the two appearances is the more pleasing. The Copper-wing 

 is not found with white wing bars. 



The Saxon Pigeon. 



A variety of foreign Toy pigeon, called the Saxon, has been 

 occasionally exhibited in this country lately. It is brilliant 

 black in colour, with white wing bars. The head is unhooded, 

 the eyes orange-coloured, and the legs and feet rather heavily 

 feathered. I cannot find any reference to it among German 

 authors. Such a variety might, no doubt, be produced by 

 selection from the produce of the white-barred black Blaze 

 Faces that happened to come foul-tailed and short of face 

 marking. I believe it is not unusual for them to breed young 

 ones entirely wanting the white brow spot. 



The Breast Pigeon. 



The Breast, Coloured Breasted, or Breaster Pigeon {die 

 Brusttaube, Farbenhrilstige Taube, der Bruster), is a German 



