239 POUTING PIGEONS. 



very scarce in Pouters. I do not admire it myself, but it 

 could be vastly improved if bred for. Duns are usually hens, 

 but I nave seen a dun cock. I have seen blue, red, yellow, 

 and dun chequers. Of these, the blue is the only one which 

 can be said to be common, and that not so much so as formerly. 

 Such chequers as come in crossing the solid with the barred 

 colours do not represent what could be made of them were they 

 to be systematically bred for; but in the present state of the 

 Pouter fancy I do not think there is room for them. The 

 blue chequer is of two kinds the light, and the dark, some- 

 times called black chequer. The light blue chequer is useful 

 for improving colour of wing coverts and bars in blues, but 

 it must be used with care, and with due regard as to how 

 it was itself produced. This colour has always existed in the 

 breed. The black chequer is sometimes so dark that it is 

 apparently black on the wing coverts ; but its tail is dark 

 blue, with the usual black bar, and any foul feathers on its 

 under body are greyish blue. This colour is often thrown by 

 a pair of reds which have had a recent cross of black. It 

 is a very good cross for black, and some of the most lustrous 

 black pieds have been so produced. 



The mealy Pouter has always been a favourite in Scotland, 

 because many of the best birds ever seen have been so coloured. 

 It is of various shades, the correct colour being the same as 

 in the best show Antwerps. The neck and wing bars ought 

 to be lustrous red, and the wing coverts of a clear light tint, 

 but still decided enough to show up the rose pinion. The 

 tail should be so light as to appear nearly white. Mealy has 

 been continually bred with blue, and, consequently, most mealies 

 are of a bluish tint, with a hard blue-black beak, instead of a 

 soft-coloured, ruddy one. The mealy could be greatly improved 

 by cultivation, which it is well worth, as are the other bar- 

 winged colours, the silver and yellow-mealy. Silvers are occa- 

 sionally bred from blues, and are almost invariably, in my 

 experience, hens. It is many years since I heard of a silver 



