Baldhcad and Beard Tumblers. 159 



in size, &c., to the common baldhead and other tumblera. It is always 

 clean legged, as far as I have noticed. Its correct marking is the follow- 

 ing: The upper mandible should be coloured, though reds and yellows 

 may have it white, and the lower iu all cases white. The beard, from 

 which the bird has its name, is a dash of white extending from eye to eye 

 across the throat. Commencing below the eye as a point, it widens to 

 about half an inch below the beak, and it should be exactly alike on each 

 cheek. This is the marking as described in the treatise before mentioned, 

 but another style of beard, known as the pepper-faced or peppered beard, 

 has this dash of white, sprinkled with coloured feathers. I think this is 

 an undesirable marking, though it was liked by many in days gone by. 

 There are also beards with a coloured line down the throat, dividing the 

 white into two parts. In addition to the white beard, the flights should 

 bo white to the turn, and the tail with its coverts, upper and under, 

 should be white ; all else should be coloured. I am aware that it is not 

 easy to get beards entirely dark thighed, with ten white flights a side ; 

 but that is no reason why the standard should be reduced. Such birds 

 have been seen, and are all the more valuable because scarce. It is con- 

 sidered that seven or eight a side is good enough for a dark-thighed bird, 

 but I have had a strain of tumblers with far less white about them 

 than the beard — viz., blacks, all coloured except the primary flights, 

 which were white, and they bred true. And when beards are once got 

 full-flighted and dark-thighed they will breed true after a time, though 

 it may be difiicult to fix such marking without trouble. Standards 

 of excellence in pigeons should be standards difficult of attainment, and 

 they should also be artistically beautiful and original to entitle them 

 to support. Although the beard ought not to be entirely dark-thighed, 

 there is always some white where the feathers finish off at the hocks, but 

 the less of this the better. The beard ought to have pearl eyes, and as 

 the whole head above the eyes is coloured, this is not a difiEcult point to 

 maintain. 



In blue beards the hens are always smoky in colour, and I have never 

 seen any of a good bright blue. This fault appears to be in the breed, 

 as it is in some other breeds of blue-marked pigeons. It might possibly 

 be eradicated by crossing blue beard cocks with good coloured whole 

 blue hens ; but such experiments take years to complete, and when the 

 result is so remote and the reward uncertain, who will be at the trouble 



