102 NUNS THEIR PECULIARITIES. [CHAP. iv. 



plumage, which is very peculiar, and she seems to 

 take her name entirely from it, her head being, as it 

 were, covered with a veil. 



"Her hody is all white; her head, tail, and six of 

 her flight feathers ought to he entirely either black, red, 

 or yellow, viz., if her head be black, her tail and flight 

 should be black likewise ; if her head be red, then her 

 tail and flight should be red ; or if her head be yellow, 

 her tail and flight should also be yellow ; and, accord- 

 ingly, they are called either red-headed Nuns, yellow- 

 headed Nuns, &c., and whatever feathers vary from this 

 are said to be foul ; for instance, should a black-headed 

 Nun have a white, or any other coloured feather, in her 

 head, except black, she would be called foul-headed ; or 

 a white feather in her flight, she would be called foul- 

 flighted, &c. ; and the same rule stands good in the 

 red-headed or yellow-headed ones; though the lest of 

 them all will sometimes throw a few foul feathers, and 

 those that are so but in a small degree, though not so 

 much valued in themselves, will often breed- as clean- 

 feathered birds as those that are not. 



"A Nun ought likewise to have a pearl eye, with a 

 small head and beak; and to have a white hood, or 

 tuft of feathers on the hinder part of the head, which 

 the larger it is, adds the more beauty to the bird."* 



In size, Nuns are somewhat less than the common 

 dove-house Pigeons. Their flight is bold and graceful ; 

 they are very fairly prolific, and by no means bad 

 nurses. A peculiarity in the new-hatched chicks of the 

 black-headed Nuns is, that their feet are frequently, 

 perhaps always, stained with dark lead colour. All 



* Treatise, p. 124. 



