76 Fancy Pigeons. 



and I should consider a pearl or yellow more beautiful than a bull eye. 

 The feet and legs are generally stockinged, though sometimoa heavily 

 feathered and hooked, or trousered, as he calls it. The latz is certainly 

 a pretty pigeon, and would make a good addition to the aviaries of 

 those who like birds of well contrasted markings, and likely to breed 

 very true to thorn. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



THE MANE PIGEON. 



Die Mdhnentaube oder Krausir/e Mohrenku pf — the mane or curly Moor 

 head pigeon — is said by Neumeister to be probably the latz pigeon per- 

 fected by long breeding. From his description of it, they have much 

 in common. It is rather larger than the field pigeon, broader breasted 

 and more thick-set in make. It is said to be found chiefly in Thuringia 

 and the Saxon Erz mountains, and is generally of black markings. Its 

 rather thick strong beak is polished black, its eye large and black 

 brown iu the iris. The thighs, legs, and feet are heavily feathered, the 

 claws white. The ground colour is white, except as in the latz, the 

 head, front and sides of neck, and breast, which are black ; the tail, with 

 its coverts, are, however, also black in this variety. Its characteristic 

 is the white waving mane on the back neck, reaching upwards, down- 

 wards, and to the aides of the neck, parting the black of the bodice 

 marking from the white. The mane consists of thinly sown flaky 

 feathers hanging around the neck disorderly, and in the form of a mane, 

 not by any means close, as in the jacobin, but reaching as far down the 

 neck as the coloured bodice does in front. 



The ciiief difference between the latz and mane pigeons seems to 

 lie in the greater development of loose disordered feathers at the back 

 of the neck, the former having only a larger hood, while these feathers 

 in the latter take the form of a waving mane. The coloured taU and 

 greater development of leg feather are also properties of the latter ; but 

 they are evidently near relatives. 



