77 PIGEONS OF COLOUR. 



and nails, a reddish yellow iris, and is smooth-headed. 

 The first remove from this form is that in which the 

 colour is still more delicate and silvery, and in which the 

 dark flights and tail bar almost disappear, and become 

 nearly of the same tint as the body feathers. The next 

 form, originally from Silesia, is of the same colouring as 

 the preceding, but with white wing bars, beautifully edged 

 with black, and with black tail bar. The newest and rarest 

 form is known in Germany as the Porzelantaube, or Porcelain 

 Pigeon, and, in addition to what the last-mentioned variety, 

 the Silesian, shows, is chequered or spangled over the coverts 

 of the wings, shoulders, upper and middle back, with narrow 

 white spots fringed with black. 



The make and shape of all these varieties are similar. They 

 are found smooth, medium, and rough-legged, but are pre- 

 ferred heavily feathered. The smooth-legged chequered or 

 spangled ones are known in this country as Ural Ice, while 

 the rough-legged spangled birds are called Siberian Ice. In 

 all varieties they range in colour from light to dark, but the 

 powdered lavender ground tint, as uniform as possible, is the 

 most desirable. The blacker the edging on white wing bars 

 and spangling, the more inclined they are to run dark in the 

 blue. The iris is always preferred to be yellow, but is often 

 hazel in the lightest tinted birds. There are also Ice Pigeons 

 whose ground tint is changed from lavender blue to a beauti- 

 ful soft powdery silver. The various types should be distinct 

 and well-marked, not halfway between, neither one thing 

 nor another that is, the spangled variety should be heavily 

 spangled, and the merely white-barred should not show any 

 incipient spangling. 



The Swiss Pigeon. 



In Boitard and Corbie's work this variety is called Pigeon 

 Suisse. It is the Schweizertaube of Germany, where it also 



