198 



FANCIERS' JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 



PlQEO|\| DEf^(\J|VlEfJ-|-. 



(For Fanciers' Journal.) 

 NUNS. 

 The Nun is a very interesting member of the Toy family, 

 and a flight of first-class birds is a beautiful sight, especially 

 when they have been taught to 

 fly high and to keep much upon 

 the wing. The dark color tip- 

 ping the four extremities (wings, 

 tail, and head) of the white 

 body presents a pleasing con- 

 trast as we look upwards at the 

 flight as it sails over us. And 

 not alone as birds of flight are 

 they of interest ; upon a well- 

 kept lawn or fancy stable-eaves 

 they are attractive. The variety 

 should be kept by itself. It does 

 not mix well with the other varieties, and any cross from it 

 is useless unless the manipulator has distinct projects in his 

 mind as to the wherefore of his cross. An amateur can 

 breed Nuns with great success, as the variety is one of the 

 oldest and best established, and when the stock is truly bred 

 and cared for there is little to be done except culling out 

 the foul-marked young ones. 



The culling out can be done by any one who has an eye 

 for colors and a knowledge of the markings of the Nun. 

 The culling out, it must be remembered, does not refer to 

 the plucking out of foul feathers, but to the selection and 

 killing of all young birds whose coloring is not as perfect as 

 it ought to be. Many amusing anecdotes might be rehearsed 

 of the culling of fouls from the Toys, and few fanciers but 

 know very thoroughly the meaning of the word ; in fact, it 

 is astonishing with what a keen sense of the finer meaning 

 of words a fancier looks at a bird that is liable to foul 

 feathers. He is always a little suspicious, even of the most 

 honest dealer ; and many a careful breeder has to bear for a 

 time the onus of the treachery of unscrupulous impostors. I 

 have been cheated so often that I never now ask a"man if 

 his birds are clean. What is the use of causing a man to 

 lie as well as cheat? In these last sentences I am not 

 striking at any particular person or class of persons ; but a 

 foul feather is such an eyesore, and so many birds are im- 

 proved by the extraction of it, and so few people can tell 

 when it is out, that the temptation to draw a little hard on 

 it is as much as a conscientious man can withstand. He 

 will pick up his bird, and would willingly give a dollar if 

 the foul was not there. By and by he begins to finger that 

 feather, and then he would give two dollars if it was not 

 there. Now is the time for him to let that bird go if he 

 wishes to remain easy in mind, but he cannot, and presently 

 the feather drops out, and the bird drops to the floor as clean 

 as a pin. But, how about that man's conscience? Why 

 the first time his friend praises that bird the guilty indi- 



vidual would give five dollars if that foul feather were back 

 in its place. The bird has become an upbraiding object to 

 him, and the foul has been transplanted from the bird to 

 that man's honor, and it sticks there and rankles until the 

 feather grows again, and experience teaches him that a foul- 

 marked bird can be better borne than foul-marked honor. 



Nearly twent3' years ago (by the way, I used that expres- 

 sion once before, and it got me the name of "an old bach- 

 elor," which is not so, as I am a young one) I gave to a 

 friend a pair of Nuns, and after giving, was obliged to build 

 a place for them, which we did, on the lawn, in front of the 

 house. It was in a Southern State, where the cold of winter 

 seldom affected the birds, and our house was all out-doors — 

 that is, in the centre of the circular plot formed- by the car- 

 riage-drive. We set a post ten feet high ; three feet and a 

 half from the ground was a circular platform, and near the 

 top of the post was a fancy roof. The boxes were built 

 around the post, and a lattice-work of wire imprisoned the 

 birds until such times as the fair owner allowed them lib- 

 erty. There they lived for years, and their family increas- 

 ing, was kept in the purest order and fineness by the regular 

 selection of the fittest subjects. 



The selection of the best birds can be accomplished by 

 any one, for Nuns are small white birds, with black, blue, 

 yellow, or red heads, tails, and tips of wings. For instance : 

 Take a white, hooded bird in your hand, and color its head 

 with black as far back as the lower inside edge of the hood, 

 and continue the coloring from the corners of the hood to 

 a point on the front of the neck, about an inch and a half 



below the insertion of the beak, so as to have the appearance 

 of a bib ; then color the tail back of a line passing across the 

 vent and encircling the posterior part of the rump, and the 

 primary flight (the ten outer) feathers of each wing, and 

 you have the coloring of the Nun. The beak is black, as 

 are the beaks of all black-headed pigeons ; eyes, pearl ; hood, 

 large and evenly turned, the inside perfectly white in fine 

 birds ; the legs bare and red ; toe-nails in standard birds 

 black. 



In judging Nuns, I have always thought of the following 

 points : 



1. Coloring, a pure white with deep black, the lines of 

 division distinctly drawn, and no foul feathers of either color 

 appearing. 



2. Eyes, pearl. 



3. Hood well shaped, and clean on the inside. 



4. Feet, clean red, with black toe-nails. 



5. Colors, black, blue, red, yellow, and dun. 



The last color I should like to see done away with, as it 

 stands in the way of purity of tone in the yellow. A flight 

 of Nuns of the four colors is a good problem for a fancier; 



