ii6 THE PIGEON BOOK 



markings and match up to one deficient in this respect, 

 but possessing good general type. More champions are 

 bred this way than from winning parents. The produce 

 of two winners mated together is usually disappointing. 

 Young blacks in the nest should be grizzled all over wings 

 and back with pure white feathers intermixed where the 

 rose and handkerchief are required. After the first moult 

 all the previously grizzled feathers will come black, and 

 the pure white only will remain white. Don't be in too 

 much of a hurry in forming an opinion on nestlings, as 

 sometimes the pure white feathers will not put in an 

 appearance until the squeaker is four or five weeks old. 

 Often babies at three weeks old will appear to be insuffi- 

 ciently marked, but at six weeks will have a sort of 

 second crop spring up, and finally become good shoul- 

 dered birds. With reds and yellows the development of 

 the markings is entirely different, the youngsters being 

 quite self-coloured until the first moult, when the white 

 feathers gradually make their appearance, and not until 

 the moult is completed are you sure of what a bird will 

 actually be. Should a red or yellow happen to have any 

 white feathers in the nest or commence showing them 

 before it is three months old, you may safely reckon upon 

 such bird being too gaily marked by the time it has com- 

 pleted its moult; so unless it possesses exceptional good 

 points in some other direction I advise an early test of 

 its qualities under a pie-crust and thus make room for 

 others of more promise. The same remarks apply more 

 or less to Whitesides, which are found in two colours 

 only, i.e., red and yellow. Blacks are practically an un- 

 known quantity, and a fortune awaits anyone who can 

 establish a reliable strain of this colour. As in the case 

 of the red and the yellow Mottles, so also is the White- 

 side a self-coloured bird in the nest, the white feathers 



