237 POUTING PIGEONS. 



it is owing to the poverty of colour in reds and yellows generally 

 that they are unable to carry colour in the tail ; but however 

 white the tail may appear to be, an examination will always show 

 that the feathers are not really white, like those in the tail of an 

 all white Pouter, the shafts of the primaries being usually dark, 

 and the under coverts grey, in the lightest tailed birds. When 

 fine coloured red Jacobins, Turbiteens, or other red pigeons with 

 white extremities, breed young ones with a foul tail feather or 

 two, as they frequently do, these feathers are invariably weak 

 in colour compared with their body feathers. The old breeders, 

 finding it impossible to breed red and yellow Pouters with tails 

 as dark as their wing coverts, probably tried to breed them with 

 tails as white as possible, for it cannot be denied that a half- 

 coloured or stained tail does not look well. But then, if the 

 white tail were imperative, it would be necessary to keep reds 

 and yellows entirely distinct from blacks, for how could the 

 black-tailed black, when crossed with the red, be expected to 

 breed reds with pure white tails, and blacks with black tails ? 

 As a matter of fact, the best coloured reds and yellows are 

 usually the most heavily stained in tail; therefore, finding that 

 it is natural for them to be so, it should not prejudice them. I 

 do not suppose any intelligent breeder would prefer a brick-red, 

 with an apparently white tail, to a blood red with a dark rump 

 and stained tail. There is no trouble with the tails of black 

 Pouters ; however bad their colour, they can always carry it to 

 the end of the tail. In crossing black with blue Pouters, 

 smoky blacks, showing wing bars of a darker hue, are a common 

 result. This can be bred out in a series of crosses ; but it ruins 

 colour in reds and yellows to breed any such blue-bred blacks 

 with them. The first cross between black and red, in all 

 varieties of pigeons, however good in colour, often results in 

 strawberry or sandy. These are of various shades, from such as 

 are very light, looking as if sanded over, to such as are of a 

 reddish strawberry, many of which are ticked with black. It is 

 well known that some of the best black pieds have been bred 



