2o8 Fancy Pigeons. 



fact, a coloured body with white points may be found in many domestic 

 animals, such as horses, dogs, and rabbits, and wag doubtless originally 

 produced from the cross of self-colours with albinos. I merely mention 

 all this because some people refer the marking of the jacobin to the 

 bald-headed tumbler, while nothing is more certain than that it could 

 have been produced without any admixture of alien blood. 



The head of the jacobin ought to be white, above a line running from 

 the mouth across the eyes. Both mandibles are white in rich-coloured 

 reds and yellows ; but a high-out black has often the lower mandible 

 coloured, or partly so. There is a natural line between the eyes and 

 mouth, which serves as a guide for marking ; at the same time a few 

 of the short feathers below this line are generally white, or, if not, a few 

 of those above it are sometimes coloured, for it is diificult to get the 

 marking quite exact. "When the white comes below the eyes, or any way 

 down the throat, the bird is low-cut, certainly no great eyesore in a first- 

 class bird, which will never show it unless its chain be opened out. But 

 the high-cut marking is what is desired. The flight feathers should be 

 white to the turn, and the taQ with its coverts also white. All else 

 should be coloured, though even in the darkest thighed and vented birds 

 there is generally some white where the thigh feathers finish off at the 

 hocks. When this can only be detected by handling it is no great fault. 

 It was for some time a very difficult matter to get full-flighted, high-cut, 

 dark-thighed birds, because so many were low-cut and white-thighed ; 

 but during the last few years there has been an immense progress made 

 in the desired markiog. I have seen jacobins imported from the Conti- 

 nent beautifully marked, though not to be compared with our own in the 

 more important points of the breed ; at the same time, I believe foreign 

 blood has been used here, during the past twenty years, in bringing the 

 jacobin to its present high quality. 



Formerly, the carrier, pouter, and short-faced tumbler were the only 

 varieties regarded in this country as high-class pigeons. The jacobin, 

 turbit, &c., were toys. Ideas have changed, and the jacobin is now 

 regarded as a very high class pigeon. Not only is it full of properties 

 difficult to breed, but it is one of the most beautiful pigeons known, and 

 a general favourite. I dislike placing the different varieties of pigeons 

 in any order of merit, and will only say that, in my opinion, it ranks 

 among the first four, leaving other fanciers to please themselves. 



