S2 Fancy Pigeons. 



ice. lu all varieties tliey vary in colour from li2;ht to dark, but the 

 powdered lavender ground tint, as uniform as possible, is what is desired. 

 The blacker the edging on white wing bars and spangling, the more 

 inclined they are to run dark in the blue. The iris is always preferred to 

 be yellow, but is often hazel in the lightest tinted birds. There are 

 also ice pigeons whose ground tint is changed from lavender bine to a 

 beautiful soft powdery silver. The various types should bo distinct and 

 well marked, not half way between, neither one thing nor another, that 

 is, the spangled variety should be heavily spangled and the merely white 

 barred should not show any incipient spangling. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



THE MIROITE PIGEON. 



This is a Frouch variety, described by Boitard and Corbie, and men- 

 tioned by Ercnt. The French writers describe them thus : " It is incon- 

 ceivable that none of the authors who have written about pigeons have 

 mentioned this race, so remarkable by the beautiful colour of its plumag-e. 

 la it because they never heard of it ? But, however, although not common, 

 all amateurs know it, and some possess several varieties of it. Is it 

 because they have not regarded it as a pure race ? This cannot be the 

 reason, for these pigeons are positively a pure race, since they cannot 

 be crossed with any other variety, however much they resemble it, 

 without being lost. Be it as it may, these birds have the general form of 

 the mondains (common runts), and can scarcely be distinguished, except 

 by the striking beauty of their plumage. They never have a cere round 

 the eyes, and are generally yellow in the iris. 



" Pigeon MiroitS Uouge. — It is the colour of the red blood of an ox, 

 interrupted at two-thirds of an inch from the ends of the flight and 

 tail feathers by a grey white bar, half an inch broad. The ends of these 

 feathers are of a red colour, a little clearer than the rest of the body ; 



