344 FANCY PIGEONS . 



till the bird is from two to three years of age, when it comes 

 to its best, after which it gets annually darker, till it becomes 

 more black than yellow, and the tail and flights lose their 

 standard character through absence of white. Even then the 

 bird is beautiful, though past its best from a standard point 

 of view. In the Treatise of 1765 the author says, at page 57 : 

 " I have had some in my collection that have had few feathers 

 in them but what have contained the three colours that con- 

 stitute the Almond, or Ermine — viz., black, white, and yellow, 

 variously and richly interspersed." This has been often quoted 

 as to mean that the three colours should run through all the 

 feathers of the Almond ; but no white must appear elsewhere 

 than in flights and tail at any period of the bird's existence. 

 When the ground colour is only a yellow tinged with white, 

 it is called an Almond Splash, and to breed from such for 

 colour is to go backwards, and is like breeding from bad 

 coloured pigeons of any sort. The Almond Tumbler is one 

 of the varieties which show a sexual difference in colouring, 

 the hens, for the most part, being weaker in their ground 

 colour than the cocks, and wanting the black pencilling ev^enly 

 distributed over the body. There is generally less break in 

 the feather, and the black is seldom of so deep a tint. A 

 really good hen takes longer to come to perfection than a 

 cock, and consequently remains longer in feather. There is 

 no such thing as a standard-feathered hen in flights and 

 tail, or, at least, such is of the greatest rarity. 



Cakriage. — The shape and carriage of the Almond is the 

 next property to be mentioned. The breast ought to be 

 broad and prominent, the neck short and thin, the back 

 hollow, the rump rather full, and the tail carried above the 

 flights, which should touch the ground, but not drag on it. 

 The head should be thrown back, and the bird should walk 

 on tiptoe, on short, unfeathered legs. Nothing is more attrac- 

 tive in an Almond than excellent carriage, and it is a sign of 

 good blood; for, however fine a bird may be in its other pro- 



