102 Fancy Pigeons. 



bara, which resembles it very much. The red and yellow Swiss pigfeons 

 with dark eyes and crescent, originating from suitable pairing with the 

 blue starling neck, althoug-h they occur very seldom, are a beautiful 

 variety, which are paid large prices for by amateurs. The Swiss pigeon 

 is in general not common, and is only found in Saxony, Thuringia, and 

 Silesia." 



Eoitard and Corbie, in their chapter on tho Pigeons Suisses, include 

 several varieties which appear to me to have no connection with them, 

 such as the Piijeon Suisse hai dord ou his dorS. Their description and 

 illustration of this variety make it out to be more like the hyacinth : 

 " Ce pigeon ressemblc un peu au maille fou," they say. Brent has re- 

 produced the illustration of this pigeon on page 64 of his book (third 

 edition), where it serves as a portrait of the porcelain pigeon, a sub- 

 variety of the hyacinth. I fancy that after reading that it resembled the 

 fire-coloured Pigeon maille a little, he thought it would do well to 

 represent it. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



THE BLACK-BACKED GULL PIGEON. 



I HAVE never seen this variety, which has only been described by Brent, 

 so far as I can find. He says : "Of this variety I have seen a few 

 specimens in London, called also the great China gull ; but as to their 

 origin I know nothing. In appearance they were much larger than the 

 common kinds, approaching in form that of the Spanish runta, smooth- 

 headed and clean-footed. The scapular feathers and the wings, with the 

 exception of the extreme or the marginal pinion feathers, were black ; the 

 marginal flight feathers and the -rest of the plumage being white, thus 

 bearing a marked resemblance to the large black -banked gulls [Larus 

 marinus) so common on our coasts. I believe there are also some stuifed 

 specimens of this variety in the British Museum." 



