331 THE NUN. 



however it is described by Willughby under the name of 

 Helmet for mere markings, it has lost the tumbling propensity. 



The Nun is a compact, trimly-built pigeon, of upright car- 

 riage, with a Tumbler's head, beak, and pearl eye, which latter } 

 in the black variety, is surrounded with a narrow blackish 

 cere. The shell, which is sometimes miscalled a hood, should 

 be very extensive, and resemble a cockle shell filled with plaster 

 of Paris, stuck, as it were, on the back of the bird's head. It 

 should on no account take a cupped form, but, when viewed 

 in profile, be perpendicular, and so extensive that, when seen 

 from before, it should describe three-quarters of a circle. 

 The more even its edge, so as to form an unbroken line, the 

 better, and although but few have it so large, it should come 

 down below the level of the eyes; and the more it stands out 

 from the head the better, when it resembles the halo around 

 the head of a mediaeval saint. 



The Nun is found of several colours, such as black, blue, 

 dun, red, and yellow-headed. I shall take the black first in 

 my description, and, although it is comparatively easy to breed 

 this colour good, yet many Nuns are to be found very off- 

 coloured in their black. 



The black Nun, however good in colour, must not have a 

 light beak like other black-headed pigeons, such as Barbs, 

 which are preferred white-beaked, but its beak should be 

 as black as possible ; and, I may say, it never is white-beaked 

 as far as I have noticed. The head, as far back as the 

 shell, which should stand up, and be purely white, must be black. 

 As the shell feathers grow with a forward inclination, and 

 those of the crown of the head backward, the latter, where 

 they meet the shell feathers, take an upward turn, and form 

 the support of the shell. If all the backward-growing feathers 

 of the crown are black, the shell will, therefore, have a black 

 lining, which, being unwished for, causes the dodging exhibitor 

 to cut or pluck them, and so show a clean white shell. 



When the young Nun is about twelve days old, the head 



