322 FANCY PIGEONS. 



black ticks through the hackle, but I think fanciers are 

 agreed that the almond feather is not suitable in any pigeon 

 with white markings, such as the Baldhead or Pouter, and 

 that, however well it might look in its early beauty, it would 

 not compare with black, red, and yellow, in their best tints, 

 when it began to darken with age. 



The Beard Tumbler Pigeon. 



The Beard Tumbler, like the Baldhead, is found in black, 

 blue, silver, red, and yellow. The ordinary variety of flying, 

 tumbling Beard, is similar in size, &c., to the common Bald- 

 head and other Tumblers. It is always clean-legged, as far 

 as I have noticed, and ought to be marked in the following 

 manner: The upper mandible should be coloured, though reds 

 and yellows may have it white; and the lower, in all cases, 

 white. The beard, from which the bird has its name, is a 

 dash of white, extending from eye to eye, across the throat. 

 Commencing below the eye as a point, it widens to about 

 half-an-inch below the beak, and it should be exactly alike 

 on each cheek. This is the marking as described in the 

 Treatise before-mentioned; but another style of Beard, known 

 as the Pepper-faced, or Peppered Beard, has this dash of 

 white sprinkled with coloured feathers. I think this is an 

 undesirable marking, though it was liked by many in days 

 gone by. There are also Beards with a coloured line down 

 the throat, dividing the white into two parts. In addition to 

 the white beard, the flights should be white to the turn, and 

 the tail, with its coverts, upper and under, should be white ; 

 all else should be coloured. I am aware that it is not easy 

 to get Beards, entirely dark-thighed, with ten white flights 

 a side ; but that is no reason why the standard should be 

 reduced. Such birds have been seen, and are all the more 

 valuable because scarce. It is considered that seven or eight- 

 a-side is good enough for a dark-thighed bird ; but I have 

 had a strain of Tumblers with far less white about them than 



