299 WATTLED PIGEONS. 



" Silvers. — An uniform and bright creamy tint. Neck of a 

 deeper shade. Bars as black as possible. Beak of a dark 

 shade. 



" Grizzles and Chequers. — Each feather distinctly grizzled or 

 chequered. The Markings, colour of Beaks, and Eye-wattles,, 

 same as in blues. 



" Yellows and Beds. — Colour uniform and bright. Beak of 

 an even flesh colour." 



The foregoing scale of points nearly agrees with what wa& 

 formerly known as the " London style," opposed to which^ 

 the *' Birmingham School " upheld a more Skinnumy kind of 

 Dragoon. Both kinds are fully described by their partisans in 

 Mr. Fulton's book, where coloured plates of each are given. I 

 think no one can carefully read Moore's descriptions of the 

 Horseman and Dragoon without coming to the conclusion that 

 the latter was, in his day, a different bird from the modern 

 London one, which closely approximates to his description of 

 the Horseman, with its barrel head, pinched eye, and various 

 colours, of which "the blues and blue-pieds are most noted to 

 be genuine and good." I think that, in the course of time, 

 Moore's Horseman and Dragoon have gradually amalgamated 

 in the present London Dragoon, which has become of a some- 

 what fixed type in the hands of London pigeon keepers, though 

 probably without much design on their part ; and now, in these 

 days of pigeon shows, when, in the course of a year, a typical 

 bird, according to the foregoing standard, can win quite a large 

 sum of money in prizes, it is no wonder that what was, before 

 show days, a pigeon worth only a few shillings, is now very 

 valuable indeed. 



On comparing the standards of the Carrier and Dragoon, it 

 will be seen that much which is faulty in the former becomes 

 positively excellent in the latter. From this it might be 

 supposed that a very bad Carrier would make a very good 

 Dragoon, which is by no means the case, for, in practice, it is 

 found no easy matter to breed the latter good according to the 



