188 FANCY PIGEONS. 



of those above it are sometimes coloured, for it is difficult to 

 get the marking quite exact. When the white comes below 

 the eyes, or any way down the throat, the bird is low-cut 

 certainly no great eyesore in a first-class bird, which will never 

 show it unless its chain be opened out; but the high-cut 

 marking is what is desired. The flight feathers should be 

 white to the turn, and the tail, with its coverts, also white. 

 All else should be coloured, though, even in the darkest 

 thighed and vented birds, there is generally some white where 

 the thigh feathers finish off at the hocks. When this can 

 only be detected by handling it is no great fault. It was for 

 some time a very difficult matter to get full-flighted, high-cut, 

 dark-thighed birds, because so many were low-cut and white- 

 thighed; but during the last few years immense progress 

 has been made in the desired marking. I have seen Jacobins 

 imported from the Continent beautifully marked, though 

 not to be compared with our own in the more important 

 points of the breed; at the same time, I believe foreign 

 blood has been used here, during the past twenty years, in 

 bringing the Jacobin to its present high quality. 



Formerly the Carrier, Pouter, and Short-faced Tumbler were 

 the only varieties regarded in this country as high-class pigeons. 

 The Jacobin, Turbit, &c., were Toys. Ideas have changed, and 

 the Jacobin is now regarded as a very high-class pigeon. Not 

 only is it full of properties difficult to breed, but it is one 

 of the most beautiful pigeons known, and a general favourite. 

 I dislike placing the different varieties of pigeons in any 

 order of merit, and will only say that, in my opinion, it 

 ranks among the first four, leaving other fanciers to please 

 themselves. 



Foreign Jacobins. 



The Jacobin is known in France as the Pigeon Nonnain, or 

 Pigeon Nonnain Capucin. A variety mentioned by Boitard 

 and Corbie as the Nonnain Maurin is described as follows : 



