I5>^ Fancv Pigeons. 



case dips down in patches, the bird is said to be slobbered. The bald- 

 head niHst have pearl eyes, though many othervrise good ones are spoilt 

 by having one or both eyes bull, or dark hazel in colour. This, however, 

 in a flying baldhead ia an intolerable fault for the show pen, and the 

 oftener buU-cyed birds are bred from the greater the proportion of young 

 ones so affected will be produced. The primary flights should be white, 

 and as they almost invariably number ten in each wing, the correct 

 marking in the baldhead is spoken of as ten a side. White to the turn 

 of the flight would be the more correct standard, as a bird with only 

 nine primaries a side would be foul flighted if it had ten white feathers 

 a side, for the tenth white feather would in that case be a secondary, all 

 of which must be coloured. Next, if the bird be lifted up by its wings, 

 it should be all white below them, including the rump and tail, with its 

 upper and under coverts. If it has any coloured feathers on thighs or 

 vent, it is foul thighed or vented, both very gre.at faults. If the colour 

 of the breast does not fiuish oft: in a straight sharp line, about an inch 

 before the thighs — evenly belted, as it is called — it is faulty. In shape 

 of head, beak, and body, and in size and carriage, the baldhead is similar 

 to the small clean-legged flying tumbler. I have never seen any with 

 feathered legs, and I am not aware if such exist. 



The baldhead ia a good flyer, and a favourite pigeon with many on 

 account of its beauty, both when seen close or in the air. It is some- 

 times a good tumbler, but not so generally as the common tumblers first 

 described, tor, having in many cases been bred for feather or for high 

 flying alone, the tumbling propensity has not been so carefully cultivated ; 

 at the same time, I have had and seen many really first class tumbling 

 baldheads. 



I have never seen any almond feathered common baldheads, but they 

 might be produced in time by crossing with the common almond tumbler. 

 I have seen yeUows with a few black ticks through the hackle, but I 

 think fanciers are agreed that the almond feather is not suitable in any 

 pigeon with white markings, such as the baldhead or pouter, and that, 

 however well it might look in its early beauty, it would not compare 

 with black, red, and yellow in their best tints, when it began to darken 

 with age. 



The beard tumbler, like the preceding, is found in black, blue, silver, 

 red, and yellow. The ordinary variety of flying tumbling beard is similar 



