176 Fancv Pioreons. 



as he expressly says, " a black ground, the body mottled with white." 

 The mottle may, however, be said to have been then in its infancy, 

 and a standard more difficult of attainment would soon be aimed at. 

 The present standard is the same as mentioned for the mottled flying 

 tumbler, viz., a self-coloured pigeon with a rose pinion of single well 

 separated white feathers on the shoulder, either with or without the 

 V-shaped handkerchief back, but with it for choice. This standard of 

 feather, accompanying good short-face properties of head, back, eye, and 

 carriage, makes up one of the moat difficult standards in fancy pigeons 

 to breed at all good. When a fancier, with such experience of short-faced 

 tumblers as Mr. Fulton, has said that he has only seen a few pairs of 

 mottles that could even be trimmed into something like perfection, and 

 that the nearest approach to a perfect bird he ever knew of had to be 

 weeded on both breast and shoulders, it will be seen how much remains 

 to be done for the short-faced mottle; whoever follows after this fancy, 

 then, has not only to contend against made heads, as in the almond, but 

 also against trimming, which can do but little for the latter, and so he 

 sets himself a difficult task. Perhaps, there have been but few long- 

 faced mottles ever produced anything like perfectly marked ; but there 

 are certain inherent faults of marking in the short-faced mottle, as it 

 exists, which makes it harder to produce than the long-faced. There still 

 exists, however, what may be called the remnants of a good strain of 

 black mottles, in which the ground colour is good, but which are much 

 inclined to a blaze of white on the forehead, and to orange instead of white 

 eyes. Both are great faults, and a white eyed bird has only to be seen 

 by the side of a yellow or orange eyed one to show how very much better 

 it looks. From the amount of colour in the mottle there is but little to 

 contend with in the way of broken eyes, as in the almond. In head and 

 beak, though sometimes passable, they are never so broad nor so lofty 

 as the beat almonds, while in carriage they are sometimes very good indeed, 

 which is a great aet-off to their appearance. In breeding black mottles 

 the blaze face should bo avoided, however good they may otherwise be, 

 and it might be eradicated in time, as in black pied pouters, which nearly 

 always had it twenty years ago. 



About eight years ago, I bought two pairs of black mottles from the 

 late Mr. James Ford, of London, who then had a good strain of them. 

 Two of them were very fairly marked, and the others were mottle-bred 



