242 Fancy Pi'crcons. 



old pigeon bookg. The legs are occaeionally slightly feathered, which is 

 so far faulty. A sub-yariety is bred in Germany, with frilled breast 

 like an owl. 



Size. — There is a certain difference of opinion regarding this, some 

 liking a small bird and others a large one. I think that when the 

 head properties in two birds are equal in proportion to their respective 

 sizes, the larger bird is to be preferred, as being bolder in all its points. 



Shape. — The neck short and thin, the breast very broad, the legs 

 short, and the flights rather long and carried neither high nor low, but 

 lying on each side of the tail, is, T think, the correct style for this 

 pigeon, and it is that described by continental writers. Any gullet or 

 fulness of throat takes from the wished-for appearance of a massive 

 head set on a thin stem, which most, though not all, look for in a 

 barb. A gullet, filling up the hollow of the throat, and making a bird 

 broad across the neck in profile, is a grand property in the owl tribe with 

 their sprightly carriage ; but the barb has no carriage, properly so 

 called, whatever, and looks much better with a hollow clean run throat. 



Sliull. — This should be very broad, and is, consequently, rather flat, 

 and generally with a fulness at the back. It should be as much as 

 possible of an equal breadth, and not wedge-shaped. The forehead 

 should be very broad, prominent, and well filled out, and form a curve 

 from the crown to the beak wattle, a straight lined forehsad in profile 

 being a bad fault very often seen. The forehead must be well ribbed 

 up with an indented line on each side of it as if carved out, which gives 

 this pigeon a very nice modelled appearance in head, not so marked in 

 any other variety, though seen in a less degree in the owl tribe and 

 ancient German pigeon. 



Bealc, very short, thick, well boxed, and wide in the gape ; the upper 

 mandible in the same curve as the forehead, and the under mandible 

 approaching the upper in massiveness as much as possible, which is 

 hard to get, but which, when got, gives a bird a grand appearance. The 

 beak should be flesh coloured, or no more than tipped with colour. 



Ei/e, as pure white or pearl coloured as possible, though the nearest 

 approach to this is usually a white iris, rather red at its outer edge. 

 Many good barbs have yellow irides, which ought not to disqualify, 

 but be duly allowed for in competition. White barbs have been seen 

 with pearl, but they generally have bull or hazel eyes. 



