120 Fancy Pi'creons. 



discussion on the Mahomet pigeon. Mr. W. Woodhouse, who had been 

 breeding and showing crested, three-quarter bred white barba, as 

 Mahomcts, informed fanciers in his letter to that journal, on 13th 

 December, 1S5-1, how he bred them. Brent would not accept these birds 

 as Maliomets, for he had shortly before, when writing of them, quoted 

 the above description of the true breed from the treatise, and had actually 

 seen a pair in London. He says, " This is one of the varieties of fancy 

 pigeons with which I have but a very slight acquaintance, having only 

 once seen a pair at a London dealer's, and their appearance gave me the 

 idea of a cross between an owl and a barb pigeon ; nevertheless, their 

 seam and blach wattle, cere, and skin, I consider sufficient distinctive 

 peculiarities to give them a place among fancy pigeons as a separate 

 variety." 



I shall again refer to tlie appearance in London, about this time, of 

 tliis pair of true Mahomet pigeons when I come to write of the powdered 

 English owl. 



About the year 18GS, Mr. Boyd, of Edinburgh, brought home with him 

 from Constantinople, a pair of Mahomcts. They became the property of 

 Mr. James Wallace, of Glasgow, who showed them there, in 1869, as 

 Damascenes. The hen lived but a short time, and the cock came into my 

 possession in 1878, but he was then past breeding, and he shortly after- 

 wards met his death from an accident. Of those I have seen, only a few 

 pairs altogether, he was the most pronounced in type, and most in accord- 

 ance with the description of 17C.5. 



In shape and size of body, the Mahomet is not unlike the barb, 

 and were it not that its beak and eye wattles are nearly black, instead 

 of red, it might naturally be supposed to be of the barb race. The head 

 is full and round, the beak short and thick, but not hooked ; the 

 irides are bright orange or deep yellow, and the beak and eye wattles, 

 though almost black, are covered, when in health, with a powder that 

 makes them of a beautiful blue colour. In colour this pigeon is of 

 the most lovely light blue, frosted all over as if with powder, except 

 on the wing bars, flights, and tail. The bars should remain, as in 

 the old description, as black as ebony ; the flights are of a medium 

 tiut, darker than shown in the illustration, as is the tail, except that 

 it has the jet black bar at its extremity. The lower part of the neck 

 is lustrous with hues of very light green and purple. The beak and 



