PKOPERTIES OF THE HEAD. 101 



certain that dun is little liked by foreign fanciers, and that 

 blacks, reds, yellows, and whites usually have much redder 

 wattles than duns, which are generally pale. Greater confine- 

 ment also has its influence. The colour of the eye itself should 

 be white, or what pigeon fanciers call " pearl," but it is very 

 rare to find the iris all white. If the inner portion imme- 

 diately surrounding the pupil is pearl, the eye will pass very 

 well, though the outer edge be orange or gravel, as it more 

 frequently is. An altogether red, gravel, or orange eye is a 

 decided fault, but may be condoned for other striking head 

 properties. 



The beak should be as thick and short as possible, the desir- 

 ability of thickness applying more particularly to the lower 

 mandible. It should rather incline downwards, or be " down- 

 faced;" but overmuch insistance by some judges upon this point 

 has led to an objectionable practice of slightly bending down 

 the beak, while soft, with the finger and thumb. When this is 

 done gently, every day from about three days old, for a week 

 or so, it cannot be detected, we fear ; but most people who act 

 thus overdo it, and produce an unnatural appearance of " down- 

 face " which ought to be disqualified. The beak of a Barb is 

 always desired to be white, or rather flesh-colour. A black 

 beak, which is very common in some otherwise good strains of 

 blacks, not only makes the head look very coarse in itself, but 

 is very generally accompanied by a dark or smoky tinge in the 

 red of the eye-wattles, which makes things still worse. A beak 

 with more than a slight stripe of dark colour on the upper 

 mandible, is therefore a decided fault : but this again may be 

 condoned for a fine and massive head. 



The beak-wattle should only be a moderate size, as smooth 

 as possible, and so shaped as to fill up. but little more than do 

 so, the even convex curve which the profile of the whole head 

 from crown to the point of the beak should present. Some good 

 birds are heavily jewed underneath the lower mandible ; but 



