SHOKT-rACED BALDHEADS. 123 



varieties, are quite a distinct strain from Almonds, at least for 

 very many years. The bird is so called from its white head ; and 

 the chief point about this property is that the line dividing the 

 ■white feathers from the coloured ones should run straight and 

 clean across. It is preferred if the line go almost close to 

 the eye, when the bird is termed "high-cut;" if the white 

 extends lower it is called "low-cut,'' and is not so valuable. 

 The pearl eye, head, and beak, should be as in the Almond, 

 but head and beak are seldom quite so good. Very many of 

 the birds exhibited, we are sorry to say, are more or less 

 plucked about the dividing line to make it appear more 

 even : such plucking should be attentively looked for either 

 in judging or in purchasing stock. Small foul marks are also 

 liable to occur just over the eye, and we remember once seeing 

 one of the very best Balds ever exhibited disqualified for 

 the removal of a mark of this kind. 



Besides the white head, Baldheads are required to be clean- 

 thighed — in fact, the whole belly is white, the dividing line 

 here also being desired to run clean across at the bottom of the 

 breast — ^white in tail, and as far as possible with ten white 

 flights in each wing. Here is perhaps the greatest difficulty. 

 Ten flights are apt to be accompanied by a white imrwr flight, 

 which is a fault ; also with a head too low-cut ; while on the 

 other hand the lesser quantity of white blood shown in a high- 

 cut bird tends to come out also in foul marks on the thighs ; 

 or if not there, almost always in a short number of white flights. 

 It is therefore common in pigeon reports to. read of a Bald being 

 "eight a side," or " eight, and nine," which is very good in 

 flights — ^in fact, more than is at all usual, and with good head 

 points enough to win almost anywhere. 



Baldheads are bred blue, silver, black, red, and yellow; blues 

 and silvers being far the most common, and naturally best in 

 quality. We have seen a few blues and one silver nearly equal 

 to Almonds in head, eye. and beak ; but we cannot sav as much 



