BIRDS 123 



all others ; that its sight is much obstructed, so that the 

 weaker specimens are often attacked before they know their 

 danger, and finally that the eye-wattle when pecked or 

 injured in such quarrels is peculiarly liable to become 

 inflamed and develop canker. What then is more probable 

 than that the breed originally arose through fanciers breed- 

 ing specially from individuals in which enlargement and 

 excessive growth of the skin at the base of the beak and 

 around the eye had been caused by the blows of the 

 beak inflicted in fighting ? This would explain why the 

 excrescences are not present at hatching, but develop grad- 

 ually during three or four years, and why they are more 

 developed in the cocks, since the latter are, to begin with, 

 more pugnacious. This would account for the origin of 

 the excrescences, though it need not be denied that the 

 proliferation of tissue once started has increased during 

 subsequent generations under the condition of selective 

 breeding. 



But this is not all. The same book describes in detail 

 how fanciers frequently, we may say, in considering the 

 period of the breed's evolution, habitually, " doctor " or trim 

 the wattles artificially with knife or scissors. In reference 

 to an excess of eye-wattle in proportion to beak-wattle, the 

 following remarks are made in the work cited : " To remedy 

 this, some cut off a portion of the eye-wattle, and even of the 

 beak-wattle, while others cut the beak-wattle at the root, 

 and then by continually working it towards the beak, as 

 the wound heals, cause it to tilt more forward and retain 

 the desired position : but such doctoring gives more trouble 

 than it is worth or than most fanciers care to take. A 

 little simple cutting off, though it will never make a bad 

 bird appear good, will often so improve a really good one, 

 and make it appear so nearly perfect, that very few can 

 resist the temptation." In the chapter on Carriers in the 



