70 Fancy Pigeons. 



ten a side can be reckoned a standard bird now. Eight a side certainlj' 

 looks a full flight when the wing is closed, bnt not when the bird ia 

 il^'ing ; however, eight a side with quite clean butts of the wings, is 

 preferable to more black flights with the spurious wing and adjacent 

 feathers coloured, a very common fault with all nuns, especially with 

 full-flighted ones. Here, again, is plucking resorted to, but an exami- 

 nation of the open wing will enable the searcher to detect it, if at all 

 extensive. The twelve tail feathers, with their upper and under coverts, 

 must also be black and ciit sharply across. Of ooiirso, there should be no 

 black feathers over the rest of the body, nor white ones among the black 

 markings, but a prevailing foul marking is at the knees or hocks, where 

 the thigh feathers finish off. 



The feet and legs of the black nun, when in the nest, are either quite 

 black or heavily patched with black, but this generally wears away after- 

 wards, though some birds retain it partly, especially those of a very rich 

 colour. They look much better, however, with bright vermilion-coloured 

 legs and feet. The nails of the toes should be quite black, and many a 

 good bird has a small fault in having some of them light. 



Probably, on account of the less contrast in colour, red and yellow 

 headed nuns have not been so much considered by breeders as blacks, at 

 least, they do not exist in such perfection, being, as a rule, very deficient 

 both in shell and quality of colour ; and it so happens that the marking 

 of the nun encroaches on those parts of the bird which present the very 

 greatest difficulty to tho breeder of red and yellow pigeons — the tail and 

 flights. Could red and yellow nuns be produced of such rich and lustrous 

 colour as some kinds of pigeons display, I would consider them as very 

 much finer examples of man's ingenuity than blacks, while, at the same 

 time, they would lack the contrast, though the red would not be much 

 behind even there. Eed and yellow nuns have light beaks and toenails. 



The illustration is from Mr. Archibald Duthie's winner at the Crystal 

 Palace and elsewhere, one of the best of the breed I ever handled. She 

 is a small bird, has nine and ten coloured flights, with a very finely 

 displayed shell. 



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