238 FANCY PIGEONS. 



from a sandy and a black. Blue-pied Pouters liave always been 

 favourites, and their colour being the most natural one, is easiest 

 to breed good. Tbrougb crossing witli artificial colours, blues 

 have certain inherent faults, which must be carefully guarded 

 against. Their wing bars ought to be jet black, but frequently 

 come brown, when they are called kite-barred. Their wing 

 coverts ought to be of a sound dark blue, neither smoky nor 

 dusky, nor so light and silvery that the white rose pinions are 

 with difficulty distinguished on them. White Pouters ought 

 to have flesh-coloured beaks, and almost invariably have bull 

 or hazel eyes. It may almost be taken for certain that a white 

 Pouter, with its beak even slightly stained, has some coloured 

 feathers about its head. A white Pouter with a dark, or partly 

 dark beak, cannot rightly be shown in a class for whites, if the 

 strict letter of the law be enforced ; but such a bird is in much 

 the same position as a white-vented black Carrier in a class for 

 blacks. The difference between them is, that the Carrier's fault 

 is hidden, while the Pouter's is very glaring. There was once a 

 strain of orange-eyed white Pouters, but whether they were 

 free of foul feathers I know not. Pure whites with orange eyes 

 would look very well, and I see no reason why they should not, 

 if ever shown, be allowed to compete with whites, for they would 

 really have an additional property over bull-eyed birds, and one 

 difficult to keep up, as in white Jacobins and white Tumblers. 

 There would always, however, be a suspicion that they were foul- 

 feathered somewhere ; but so there is with other pearl or yellow- 

 eyed white pigeons. 



The colours of Pouters other than yellow, red, black, and 

 blue-pied and pure white, are generally called off-colours, and 

 are not so valuable, neither are they generally bred for. This 

 would not, however, long continue to be the case if the Pouter 

 fancy were to extend greatly over the country, because in- 

 creasing competition would cause breeders to cultivate some 

 of the so-called off-colours, many of which are very beautiful. 

 Dun, which is a standard colour in Carriers, was, till lately, 



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