46 Fancy Pigeons. 



both varieties may be found living together. The blue-chequered colour, 

 like the blue, is found in most kinds of fancy pigeons, and may be con- 

 sidered the origin of all the curious spangling and chequering that exist 

 in numerous kinds of pigeons. 



The first decided change in colour of the blue rock pigeon, after the 

 chequered variety, is where the whole plumage altera to a red tint. This 

 variation, also found in most kinds of tame pigeons, is known as 

 mealy. The blue is replaced by a whitey-brown tint, and the neck and 

 vnng bars become dark red. When the mealy colour is improved by 

 selection, it can be made into a very beautiful colour, as in the mealy 

 show Antwerp. As the blue colour becomes chequered with black, 

 so the mealy becomes chequered with red, and is called a red chequer. 



These four colours, the blue, blue chequer, mealy, and red chequer, 

 ■are, then, the most original and most crude colours in tame pigeons, 

 and they are the foundation of all other colours found in pigeons. 



Besides the blue and mealy colours, there is what may be considered 

 an offshoot of the former — the silver. In this colour the body tint 

 assumes a dun hue, and the neck and wing bars become of a darker dun. 

 There are two show shades of silvers, known as brown barred and black 

 barred. They bear the same relation to each other as the whole-coloured 

 duns, found in carriers and barbs. The carrier dun is soft and ruddy 

 while the barb dun is often very deep and merging into black. Although 

 the dark-barred silver is called black barred, this is quite a misnomer, 

 for real black bars on a dun tinted body colour are, I believe, incom- 

 patible with nature. 



When the reddish tint of a mealy pigeon is changed to buff the neck 

 and bars become yellow, and this colour is known in the fancy as yellow 

 mealy, which is a soft and beautiful colour, sometimes seen in great 

 perfection in pouters. Another barred colour found in pigeons is 

 powdered blue, as in the Mahomet. The head, neck, and shoulders 

 of this bird are all tipped with a frosted silver colour, the bars across its 

 wings and tail remaining of an intense black. This colour has been 

 engrafted on the blue owl pigeon, but only in a degree, and a variation 

 of it is known as powdered silver. 



The barred colours of pigeons, therefore, include blue with black 

 bars, silver with dun bars, mealy with red bars, yellow mealy with 

 yellow bars, and powdered blue, as in the Mahomet. As powdered 



