48 Fancy Pigeons. 



beyond the neck feathers. This latter shade of dun colour, which is an 

 off colour in all high-class fancy pigeons, except carriers, often fades with 

 the advancing year, and when the bird gets its new feathers at the 

 moulting season it has then an ugly mottled appearance till they are all 

 renewed ; but they gradually tone down to a uniform appearance, and 

 the same thing happens with many silver pigeons to a greater or leas 

 degree. There is a whole blue colour, without dark neck, flights, or tail, 

 and in which the black bars are wanting. It should be uniform in shade 

 all over the bird, and may be seen in some Indian pigeons. 



In some kinds of German pigeons, the wing bars, both in barred and 

 solid-coloured varieties, are changed to white, or are marked with white 

 on the bar feathers, but this is a kind of marking, composed of white 

 and colour, that will be treated in its proper place, and does not come 

 within the scope of this chapter. 



Many German and oriental pigeons are spangled or laced on the 

 shoulders, such as hyacinths and blondinettes, but all such spangling 

 or lacing is composed of a combination of the colours I have detailed as 

 belonging to fancy pigeons, whether accompanied with white or not. 



Some pigeons are clothed in two distinct colours, such as the arch- 

 angel. This season I bred a pigeon coloured in a way that has never 

 before come under my observation, viz., a mealy, with black shoulders, 

 a combination of colour that I would not have believed possible, and 

 it is nearly clean cat, like a good turbit. There is also the combined 

 colour known as almond, or yellow spangled with black, besides many 

 others, such as bronzed kite and golden dun. White markings on a 

 coloured ground and coloured markings on a white ground are legion in 

 fancy pigeons, the same constituting the claims of many to be 

 considered as separate varieties, and each will be referred to in turn. 

 The advance from the normal blue may be traced as follows : — 



Blue with black bare. 



Blue chequered with black (blue chequer). 



Wliole black. 



Mealy with red bars, a natural ctiange from the blue. 



Mealy chequered with red (red chequer). 



Wlio)e red. 



Buff with yellow bars, a natural chant,'e from the blue or mealy. 



Buff chequered with yellow (yellow chequer). 



Whole yellow. 



Silver with dun bars, a natural chan^^e from the blue. 



Silver chequered with dun (dun chequer). 



Whole dun. 



All the barred, chequered, and solid colours are found in some varieties 



