48 FANCY PIGEONS. 



pigeons that show such rich colour. Dun of the dark shade, 

 as in barbs, also shows a greenish lustre; but the light or 

 dull dun, so often seen in carriers, seldom carries any lustre 

 beyond the neck feathers. This latter shade of dun colour, 

 which is an off colour in all high-class fancy pigeons, except 

 carriers, often fades with the advancing year, and when the 

 bird is getting its new feathers at the moulting season it 

 has sometimes a mottled appearance till they are all renewed ; 

 the same thing happens with many silver pigeons to a greater 

 or less degree. There is a whole blue colour, without dark 

 neck, nights, or tail, in which the black bars are wanting. 

 It should be uniform in shade all over the bird, and may be 

 seen in some Indian pigeons. 



In some kinds of fancy pigeons the wing bars, both in 

 barred and solid-coloured varieties, are changed to white, 

 or are marked with white on the bar feathers. 



Spangled and Laced Birds. 



Many German and Oriental pigeons are spangled or laced 

 on the shoulders, such as hyacinths and blondinettes ; but 

 all such spangling or lacing is composed of a combination 

 of the colours I have detailed as belonging to fancy pigeons, 

 whether accompanied with white or not. 



Combinations of Colour. 



Some pigeons are clothed in two distinct colours, such as 

 the archangel. I once bred a pigeon coloured in a way that 

 has never before come under my observation viz., a mealy, 

 with black shoulders, a combination that I would not have 

 believed possible, and it was nearly clean cut, like a good 

 turbit. There is also the combined colour known as almond, 

 or yellow spangled with black, besides many others, such as 

 bronzed kite and golden dun. White markings on a coloured 

 ground, and coloured markings on a white ground, are legion 

 in fancy pigeons, the same constituting the claims of many 



