148 FANCY PIGEONS. 



to have their long toe feathers broken, which partly accounted 

 for the want of them. Their toe feathers want the strength 

 of those of the old tight-plumaged birds, and seldom reach 

 their natural length without damage. I have noticed, that 

 birds bred from good imported ones, when inclined to close- 

 ness of plumage, which is faulty, grow stronger toe feathers. 

 It is almost impossible to jDreserve these feathers unbroken 

 for any length of time after the moult. An examination 

 of the feet will always show what strength of feather the 

 bird is there naturally furnished with, though the feathers 

 may be broken off short. 



CoLOUE, AND Marking. — The Bokhara Trumpeters are 

 chiefly Blacks, and Blacks mottled or splashed in some way 

 with white, though both Duns and Dun Mottles have been 

 imported. The beak is almost always white, and is a pleasing 

 feature in the breed, as it looks well just appearing from 

 under the rose. The bird I sketched my illustration from 

 was a very fine Dun Mottle, with a strong red cast through 

 its dun feathers. It was not marked as I have drawn it, 

 but was almost half white, with dark flights and tail. As 

 a standard to breed from, I think the marking shown in the 

 coloured illustration, which is the same as is wanted in the 

 Short-faced Mottled Tumbler, is preferable to any gayer mark- 

 ing; but so long as the white is disposed in single feathers, a 

 bird mottled on the head and neck, as well as on the wing 

 coverts and back, looks very well if the tail, flights, under 

 parts, and leg and foot feather, remain black. Many 

 Trumpeters are nearly white, and of late some have been 

 bred entirely free of coloured feathers. 



Some are all black except the head and upper neck, which 

 sometimes remain nearly white ; and if the rose alone could 

 be got white, or even lightly grizzled, the rest of the bird 

 remaining black, it would look very well, and such mark- 

 ing might in time become fixed if bred for. I understand 

 from Mr. T. B. C. Williams, who was lately travelling on 



