120 THE PRACTICAL PIGEON KEEPER. 



and the eyes squeezed almost out of the head. Muny of the 

 unnaturally prominent eyes seen in Short-faced Tumblers are 

 due to this cause; as also the constant running and irritation 

 which gives so much trouble, and is due either to the com- 

 pression of all the soft contents of the skull, or the closure of 

 the natural vent through the nostrils. These evils arose from 

 attaching sucli exaggerated importance to "head and beak," 

 and it was noticed that even before the means used were 

 generally known, there had been a decline in the number and 

 character of the breeders of this pigeon, Mr. Fulton's un- 

 flinching exposure of these means, as recapitulated here, led to 

 a great outburst of indignation and to many vehement denials; 

 and it has lately been stated that such abuses are things of the 

 past. We do believe that there has been reaction ; and there 

 are individual breeders whose assurances that their birds' 

 heads have never been tampered with we are able to accept 

 implicitly. But from what we have seen and known person- 

 ally in the pigeon fancy, we are altogether unable to share 

 the amiable belief of the E.ev. W. Lumley, as recently 

 expressed, that such things are no longer practised. We 

 have personally heard the most solemn assurances to that 

 effect from men whom we knew to be guilty of them ; and 

 that the plentiful supply of good heads to be seen everywhere 

 are all genuinely bred, is impossible — the simple fact is that 

 such birds could not even be liatched in such quantities. So 

 long as head counts for so much, a point that can be artificially 

 produced will be so, while the pigeon fancy remains the busi- 

 ness it does ; and only a proper balance of points can ever 

 restore the old state of things, when the Almond Tumbler was 

 the chosen pet of men of position and family. 



Whole-coloured Short-faces are met with occasionally, though 

 those called so usually show some Agate blood in the quill 

 and fluff of the feather, as already explained. By choosing 

 birds as free as possible from this, however, real whole-feathered 



