TOY PIGEONS. 187 



tail. The usual colours are blues, blue - chequers, red- 

 chequers, and silver-duns, the latter a kind of reddish cream- 

 colour, with chocolate bars. We have also seen good Grizzles. 

 Blues and blue-chequers may be bred and crossed as usual ; 

 red-chequers may be occasionally only crossed with blue- 

 chequers, now and then requiring after such a cross a counter- 

 acting cross of silver-dun ; the silver-duns are bred solely 

 together, unless with a rare cross from a red-chequer. 



The silver-duns are the aristocrats of the family. The neck 

 and breast should be rich chocolate, the head light. This is 

 natural in the cocks, but the hens are darker-headed. This 

 was remedied by breeding light-headed birds together, but the 

 result has been a tendency to grey in the neck and breast of 

 the cock, which can only be counteracted by breeding from 

 rather dark-headed hens. "We confess we think it a pity not to 

 recognise the distinctness of sex and encourage darker-headed 

 hens. Nothing can look more artistically beautiful than a loft 

 full of silver-dun Antwerps. 



Antwerps are thoroughly hardy, and cannot be surpassed as 

 feeders. They are active, but readily become accustomed to 

 their owner, and give, therefore, no trouble whatever, except 

 that of keeping up their properties. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



TRUMPETERS, ARCHANGELS, NUNS, MAGPIES, RUNTS. 



FROM amongst the crowd of miscellaneous Toy pigeons it is 

 convenient to group together the above as having attained the 

 dignity of more or less often obtaining special classes at English 

 shows : otherwise they have no connection, the Trumpeter 

 coming to us from Russia, Nuns and Magpies from Germany, 

 and Runts probably from the Mediterranean. We simply take 

 them together as the most generally known of the Toy classes. 



