CHAPTER XI. 



THE NUN PIGEON. 



The uun, from its striking contrast of colours, has always held a high 

 place among" toy pigeons. It is supposed to derive its name from the 

 arrangement of its marking, but in France it is the Jacobiue, with its 

 coloured body and white head, that is called a nun (Nonnain). The 

 French call it Pigeon Coquille Uollondais, the Dutch shell pigeon, 

 from its shell crown ; and the Germans, Das Nonnchen, the little nun, to 

 distinguish it from a somewhat similarly marked variety. Neumeister 

 says that, although hitherto considered as belonging to the field or dove- 

 house type of i^igeons, the nun is an undoubted tumbler in its formation, 

 and in this I agree with him. Having been bred so long, however — it is 

 described by Willoughby under the name of helmet — for mere markings, 

 the tumbling propensity no longer remains. 



The nun is a compact, trimly built pigeon, of upright carriage, with a 

 tumbler's head, beak, and pearl eye, which, in the black variety, is 

 surrounded with a narrow blackish cere. The shell, which has been 

 miscalled a hood, should be very extensive, and resemble a cockle-shell 

 tilled with plaster of Paris, stuck, as it were, on the back of the bird's 

 head. It should on no account take a cupped form, but, viewed in 

 profile, be perpendicular, and so extensive that, when seen from before, 

 it should describe three-quarters of a circle. The more even its edge, 

 so as to form an unbroken line, the better, and although but few have 

 it so large, it should come down below the level of the eyes, and, of 

 course, the more it stands out from the head the better, when it resembles 

 the glory around the head of a mediaeval saint. 



The nun is found of several colours, such as black, blue, dun, red, 



