4^ 



and if it fails in this point it is said to be spindle beated, which diminishes 

 something of its value. 



134. — The next three properties are those of the wattle, which ought to 

 broad across the beak ; short from the head towards the apex, or point of 

 the bill, and tilting forward from the head; for if otherwise it is said to 

 be pegg- wattled, which is very much disesteemed ; and, therefore, some 

 people (*) to impose upon mankind, and enhance the price of an indifferent 

 bird, have artificially raised the hinder part of the wattle, filled it up with 

 cork, and wired it in with fine wire, in such a manner as not to be easily 

 perceptible, especially to gentlemen who site not adepts in the Fancy. 



135. — "We now come to consider the properties of the head, which are its 

 length, its narrowness, and its flatness. When a Carrier has a long, narrow 

 head, and a very flat scull, it is much admired, and if otherwise it is said 

 to be barrel headed. 



133. (Eaton.) — Fanciers generally make tise of the term box beak> well understood 

 by Fanciers ; I cannot say I admire the term, for it does not clearly define the mean- 

 ing to a young Fancier who resides in the country, and has not the advantage of meet- 

 ing man^ Fanciers. The construction I put upon it is, that it is deep, thick, and 

 somewhat square ; the term I like best is, thick or deep, the contrary of broad or wide, 

 otherwise the Carrier must have a wide head, th« contrary of what it should have. 

 See Paragraph 135, Mooeb, its narrowness, &c., for a Carrier cannot h&,ve a broad or 

 wide beak with a narrow head, neither is it coveted or desired, on the contrary, a parti- 

 cularly narrow, deep, and thick beak the reverse of a spindle beak. 



* 134. (Mayok, p. 82.) — "To impose upon the ignorant." 



134. (Eaton.) — Mooke beautifully observes, "short from the head towards the 

 apex, &c." I have heard some good Fanciers say, they did not care if the wattle on the 

 beak came down to the end of the beak, I said good Fanciers, because I know they are 

 good Fanciers ; there is no accounting for taste, as the old woman said when she 

 kissed the cow, is not the picture striking. The wattle on the beak shoxild in fact tilt 

 both ways, from the head towards the beak and from the beak towards head, snug and 

 compact, showing one half of the beautiful deep thick or box beak. I know an acknow- 

 ledged first-rate Fancier, a Gentleman who has been a Carrier Fancier thirtj' or forty 

 years, who is trying aU he knows to breed his carriers without wattle on vhe under 

 beak, while others strive to have as much on the under as on the top beak, and contend 

 that the wattle on the upper and lower beak should resemble a walnut pealed, and 

 equally divided. However good Fanciers differ in minor points, they all agree in the 

 majors, and aU good Fanciers agree when they see a good bird ; at the same time, when 

 the wattle reaches near the end of the beak, the wattle appears in a slanting direction, 

 the opposite of what it ought to be. The beautiful deep thick or box beak in Paragraphs 

 125 and 134, Mr. Mooke states, the bill is half covered from the head with wattle, 

 short from the head towards the apex or point of the bill. It appears to me the Carriers 

 in Moore's day made a more decided dead stop of the wattle on the beak, shewed more 

 of the beak and less wattle under the beak. I have not any doubt when some of the 

 Carrier Fanciers read this account, they will waggishly say, the Fanciers in Moore's 

 day did not know how to obtain wattle, or putty, as some good Fanciers judiciously 

 call it, when over-crowded and not in the right place. It is not so much the quantity 

 as the position, for a Carrier, generally speaknig, never looks better than when two and 

 a half or three years old. 



135. (Eaton.) — The narrowness of its head is decidedly one of its greatest beauties, 

 particvdarly if long and straight, with a slight hollow impression or dent in the middle, 

 the contrary of round or barrel headed as it is called ; and if possible the head should 

 not run out wide at the back of the head, but even aU the way through, not any wider 

 behind than in front of its head. 



