286 Fancy Pigeons. 



cocks are plentiful, and really fine hens scarce. These colours have a 

 great natural affinity, and are to a large extent inter-bred in all varieties 

 of fancy pigeons. The colour of yellow pouters is often pleasing enough, 

 but is not, in reality, any nearer perfection than the majority of reds. 

 The latter were formerly sometimes to be found of a glossy blood-red, 

 but they became very scarce. In late years, attention having been 

 directed to them, much has been done in resuscitating the colour ; but, 

 although I have seen in my experience many very gooA coloured reds, 

 I never saw any of these that could compare in general pouter properties 

 with snch as were oidy of a second or third degree of colour. There is 

 a beauty and richness in the best degree of the red colour, as seen 

 in many foreign pigeons, which makes it universally admired. The 

 best red pouter I ever saw was a cock bred in London, I believe, 

 which was sold by Mr. Pulton to Mr. Ure, of Dundee, about 1870, and 

 from which are descended some of the best coloured reds now in 

 existence. This bird had not a white beak, which many consider 

 essential in a red pouter ; his beak was of a dark ruddy hue. His 

 tail was heavUy stained with red, and his rump, or upper tail coverts, 

 were as red as his wing coverts. I have always considered that it is 

 owing to the poverty of colour in rede and yellows generally that they 

 are unable to carry colour in the tail ; but however white it may appear 

 to be, an examination will always show that the feathers are not really 

 white, like the tail of an all white pouter, the shafts of the primaries 

 being usually dark, and the under coverts grey in the lightest tailed 

 birds. When fine coloured red jacobins, turbiteens, or other red pigeons 

 with white extremities breed young ones with a foul tail feather or two, as 

 they frequently do, these feathers are invariably weak in colour compared 

 with their body feathers. The old breeders, finding it impossible to breed 

 red and yellow pouters with tails as dark as their wing coverts, probably 

 tried to breed them with tails as white as possible, for it cannot be 

 denied that a half coloured or stained tail does not look well. But, then, 

 if the white tail were imperative, it would be necessary to keep reds and 

 yellows entirely distinct from blacks, for how could the black-tailed black, 

 when crossed with the red, be expected to breed reds with pure 

 white tails, and blacks with black tails ? As a matter of fact, the 

 best coloured reds and yellows are usually the most heavily stained 

 in tail, therefore, finding that it is natural for them to be so, it 



