287 WATTLED PIGEONS. 



greatest beauties of the Carrier. The beak ought next to be 

 straight, and not inclining downwards, or the bird is down- 

 faced, which takes considerably from its appearance. The 

 division between the mandibles should be exactly straight, 

 and, when the bird is in position, level, or at a right angle 

 with the neck. As to the length of the beak, measured to 

 the centre of the eye, 2in. is about the extreme length 

 ever seen in a box-beaked bird. Thin spindle beaks, and those 

 in which the upper mandible has been allowed to grow out 

 past the under, have been seen exceeding this measurement 

 considerably, but such are of no intrinsic value, a blunt box 

 beak being what is desired. 



BEAK WATTLE. This being one of the hardest points to 

 breed good, is, accordingly, a valuable one when anything like 

 perfect. A bird has seldom enough of it, to enable it to be 

 shown with success, till it has moulted several times, and 

 it sometimes continues to grow for five or six years. Many 

 kinds of pigeons get rough in beak and eye wattle with age, 

 but the Carrier has an extraordinary development of these 

 parts. This abnormal growth of wattle round the eyes and on 

 the beak constitutes its chief fancy value, all its other properties 

 being merely adjuncts thereto, calculated to set off these wattle 

 points to the greatest advantage. A good beak wattle must 

 be broad across the beak when seen from the front, short in 

 profile view, so as to show as much of the point of the beak 

 as possible, and rise high above the beak with a forward in- 

 clination at its summit, which is called being well tilted. 

 The growth of the beak wattle has been compared to that 

 of the cauliflower, which is a good illustration. It ought to 

 rise in three distinct portions as shown, and be as equal 

 as possible in formation on each of its sides, so as to have 

 their indentations, or crevices, corresponding. The wattle on 

 the under mandible is called the "jew wattle," a term not in 

 use in the old pigeon books, and the origin of which is obscure. 

 Some have considered jewed to be a corruption of jawed-, but as 



