CHARACTER OP THE BARB. 99 



is coiTcct in supposing that the " Mahomet " — a mere crested 

 variety of Barb — received its name from one of the sort being 

 a pet of the Arabian impostor. Both alike trace the pigeon to 

 Africa, it will be noticed ; and modern importations have been 

 made from the same source apparently. It is at least certain 

 that the birds which have most improved all existing strains of 

 Barbs have been imported, by Messrs. Baily and Son, from 

 the neighbourhood of Marseilles, the traffic between which 

 port and Northern Africa was formerly even greater than it 

 is now. 



The Barb was formerly considered a "toy" pigeon, but the 

 modern development of its properties has made it so difficult to 

 produce them in a degree even approaching perfection, that it is 

 now ranked amongst the "high-class" varieties. Not only is it 

 as difficult to breed a good Barb as a good Carrier, but the bird, 

 after being shown as a young one, takes just about as long to 

 " make up " sufficiently for winning as an adult bird. There 

 are, in fact, much fewer good Barbs to be found than good 

 Carriers ; so that perhaps no variety is so " open " to the 

 efforts of any new recruit to the ranks of pigeon breeders. 



Being a wattled pigeon, the principal properties of a Barb 

 lie in the head, as in the Carrier; but the type is in every point 

 almost as opposite as can well be to that of the pigeon just 

 named. A good notion of the ideal may be got from an old- 

 fashioned reel of cotton a little unwound — ^we mean such as 

 were used before the very thick machine-cotton reels came in 

 vogue. The eye-wattles represent the two projecting ends or 

 rims of the reel, the middle part of which roughly represents 

 the skull of the bird. It will be gathered from this that the 

 skull is wanted as wide as possible from side to side, while the 

 two eye-wattles are desired as large as possible, and as thick 

 as possible at the edges, so that they do not fall or drop down 

 over the eyes, which is a very great disfigurement, though not 

 unfrequently seen in worn-out old birds. It is particularly 



