96 THE PRACTICAL PIGEON KEEPEP.. 



rumps than in any other way ; and we think it likely, provided 

 any matches between bright blues and light grizzles are avoided. 

 The grizzle is itself a peculiar mixture of blue and white in a 

 kind of pepper-and-salt pattern, and is by no means easy to pro- 

 duce uniform all over, free from white on the rump, owing to 

 the mixture of white in the blood. The result of many inqtiiries 

 is that most good grizzles are got by matching average to darker 

 tint, with an occasional cross of the blue-chequer ; but that, 

 after all, grizzles of the desired quality all over are much a 

 matter of chance. The bars of all blues and its sub- varieties 

 should be clean, black, and sharp, and the eyes as deep a red as 

 possible. 



Silvers are divided into what is called brown l^arred and 

 black-barred, but the black is only a very dark brown after all. 

 The breast should be free from red or copper, and the silver as 

 clear in colour as possible. Every fancier prefers the dark or 

 so-called " black " bar ; and to obtain it the only way is to cross 

 every second or third year with blues in a special way. The 

 bright light-rumped blues will not answer. A dark-rumped, 

 good blue cock should be paired to a silver hen ; and the best 

 blues from this cross paired again to sUvers. If the blue cock 

 be young while the sUver hen is old, cocks will generally pre- 

 dominate in the produce. 



Whites are, of course, usually bred together ; when crossed, 

 the lightest blues and silvers are of course required, crossing 

 the produce back to whites. 



In breeding yellow and red there is now less difficulty than 

 formerly, there being little doubt that both colours, which are 

 foreign to the original strain of the Carrier, have been obtained 

 by complicated crosses with Scandaroons and other pigeons. 

 The great point is to select birds always which have the rump 

 of a pure self-colour, free from dun or ash-colour. With such 

 materials, the yellow may either be refreshed, when necessary 

 (for aU yellows soon become pale when in-bred), by foreign 



