178 FANCY PIGEONS. 



We know that the Short-faced Tumbler had not reached a high 

 degree of quality when the author wrote, and, as he says, " the 

 true Jack is a very small Bird, very little bigger than a 

 tumbler ; " we know that, whatever its size was when Moore 

 wrote, it was by no means the smallest of pigeons thirty years 

 afterwards. The fact is, all the small varieties of pigeons 

 produce extra small stock occasionally, and although small 

 size is admired in many varieties, quality in the properties that 

 go to make them excellent ought not to be, and is not, sacrificed 

 for size. 



One of a set of eight oil paintings of pigeons in my posses- 

 sion, evidently about 150 years old, is a self-coloured Jacobin, 

 with feathered legs and bare feet. It is a gravel-eyed, short 

 and open-chained, large bird, not worth consideration from a 

 fancier's point of view. Although I was able to rub off the 

 varnish from the other seven pictures, I could make nothing 

 of this one ; but from what I can make out, it represents a blue 

 with black bars. 



There is not much difference in modern opinion regarding 

 what a Jacobin Pigeon ought to be, excepting on the property 

 called the mane. Some say the mane is wrong, and that a 

 breed existed having a clean division of the feathers all round 

 the back of the neck, which was the true breed. If this is 

 correct, I have never seen it, and, moreover, do not believe 

 it is natural for the feathers of the Jacobin to grow in 

 this way. I have formed this opinion from observation of 

 great numbers of the breed, both British and foreign not 

 poor, half-bred looking things, known in country places, and 

 by mere keepers of pigeons, as Ruffs, but what were fairly 

 good Jacobins. The feathers at the back of the neck in the 

 Jacobin, Trumpeter, and some other varieties, can be moved by 

 them at will, so that they assume different positions at different 

 times. The Jacobin in the Treatise is certainly a maned bird ; 

 and Brent wrote, in the Poultry Chronicle of 20th September, 

 1854, when describing the Jacobin : " At the lower part of the 



