83 PIGEONS OF COLOUR. 



that most universally cherished bird, the domestic pigeon. 

 In make of head and beak, and in shape of body, the 

 Suabian, like the Starling, is of the common type, but is 

 not considered such a good breeder, or so hardy. It is found 

 both smooth and feather-legged, and both smooth-headed and 

 turn-crowned; but the smooth-legged ones, with a good peak 

 crest, are considered the originals, and look smartest. The 

 ground colour of the Suabian should be of a good metallic 

 black; but it is generally of a dull, dim black. On the head 

 and neck the feathers should be all tipped with a creamy-white, 

 interspersed with lustrous apple-green and red tints ; and on the 

 breast the white must be so intensified as to take the form of 

 a crescent, or half moon, as in the Starling. The back and 

 scapular feathers, and wing coverts, should be spangled or 

 chequered with black on their creamy-white extremities, the 

 pattern this spangling assumes being of diiferent kinds. It 

 may either be in a triangular form, or the feathers may be 

 laced round with black, though I have never seen the latter 

 form so perfect as in the illustration in Tegetmeier's Pigeon 

 Book. But as the Eastern Blondinette Pigeons can be bred 

 beautifully and regularly laced on the wing coverts, the same 

 style of marking may yet be produced in the Suabian. The 

 primaries, or flight feathers, should be black, with creamy- 

 white oval spots near their extremities ; and although it is rare 

 to get specimens marked in a similar way on the principal 

 tail feathers^ no bird can be considered perfect without. 

 The lower back, belly, vent and thighs, should also be as 

 black as possible, and in theory these -p-eiYts should show 

 the Starling marking as well; but it will be found that this 

 can only be attained by an excess of marking on the neck 

 and wing coverts. To produce the happy medium in marking, 

 and get birds with neither too little nor too much of it, is 

 the difficult point to attain in the Suabian, and as its mark- 

 ing is of such a character, it is no easy matter to breed it 

 true. It is only after the first moult that its beauties become 



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