THE ALMOND TUMBLER. 85 



fine figure, but the artist has made a mistake 

 there. The drawing of that limb is false ; it is 

 out of proportion ; it spoils the whole canvas." 

 So it does, for you cannot keep your eye off the 

 defect if you try to. Crush a bird's skull in, 

 and the natural line of beauty is destroyed. The 

 bird is rendered ugly, hopelessly ugly for life. 



It is a significant fact, since this black art 

 prevailed, " The number and character of Almond 

 breeders," says Lewis Wright, " has declined, 

 and more than one gentleman has left this Fancy 

 in disgust as soon as he learned what he must 

 do in order to win. The remedy is to give back 

 the old prominence to " feather," and the result 

 would be a return to that old state of things when 

 the Almond Tumbler was the chosen pet of men 

 of family and position." Set it down as a fact, 

 grand heads can be bred honestly. 1 have seen 

 them in the lofts of gentlemen who would not 

 sell their characters for gold, nor behave bar- 

 barously to the pets they love so well. Honest 

 men wish to breed quality, not to make it with a 

 wooden tool. I have seen high class birds ab- 

 solutely spoiled in this way. Their owner was 

 incorrigibly addicted to the bad habit of tooling 

 every nestling whether it needed it or not, that 

 when he bred an extra good bird he could not 



