THE PIGEON BOOK 117 



only appearing with the moult, the completion of which 

 should result in a bird with pure solid white wings, in- 

 cluding all the secondary flights; but the ten primary 

 flights should be coloured the same as the body. After 

 the moult it will generally be found that at least a few 

 coloured or parti-ooloured feathers will remain amongst 

 the white ones, which are subjected to a rather inhumane 

 treatment of plucking. This is usually done whilst the 

 feathers are very young and full of blood in the quill. 

 After two or three extractions of this kind they will 

 usually become white as required. It is to be hoped that 

 this difficulty will soon be overcome by scientific breeding 

 and thus dispense with this cruel operation, which is now 

 undoubtedly the great drawback to the Whitesides. 



Nfext we come to one of the most beautiful and attrac- 

 tive species of the whole Tumbler family, i.e., the Bald- 

 head or Baldpate, more usually termed for brevity's sake 

 "the Bald," the standard colours of which are black, 

 red, yellow, blue, silver, chequer, and the latest intro- 

 duction, mealy. I consider the Bald comes next to the 

 Self for good all-round Tumbler properties ; particularly 

 does this apply to the blacks, in which colour some 

 topping headed and typical bodied birds have been pro- 

 duced. The head of the Bald, as the name denotes, 

 should be perfectly white, the line of demarcation 

 between head and neck being sharply defined and extend- 

 ing from about one-eighth of an inch under the lower 

 mandible, following closely to the eye and gradually and 

 evenly rising to the back of the skull, thus forming a very 

 slight curve. The neck should be coloured, extending also 

 over the breast, where it should terminate in a line cut 

 straight across just in front of legs. The sides of wings 

 are also coloured, including butts and secondary^ flights. 

 The remainder, including ten primary flights in each 



