they mean the longest time, then they are right, but on the contrary, if they mean 

 the shortest time, then they are decidedly wrong ; nothing is easier than to assert 

 a thing, but they would experience the di£Sculty, if they attempted to produce 

 head and beak. 



For, Sib John Sebright said he would produce any given feather in three 

 years, but it would take him six years to obtain head and beak. 



BEAK. 



The beak of a first-rate Almond Tumbler ought not to exceed five-eighths of 

 an inch, and it would be infinitely better, if it was possible, to breed them that 

 they did not exceed half an inch, from the iris of the eye to the point, or more 

 properly speaking, to the end of the quick on the beak. I repeat again, if it was 

 possible to have them so short faced, as it is termed by Fanciers. It is possible for a 

 bird to be considered a pleasant or neat bird, even at three quarters of an inch, 

 but exceeding that length must be looked upon as unworthy of attention. The 

 beak should run in a straight line from the head, be extremely fine and pointed ; I 

 have some in my aviaries that have astonished me, nor could I have believed it 

 possible that the beaks could have been so fine, had I not have witnessed it myself; 

 but there are beaks on birds apparently short, that has no more style in them than 

 your thumb nails. There are many of the first-rate Fanciers, who are particularly 

 partial to what is called the goldfinch beak, which is very beautiful ; others say, 

 take a full size round cherry, then take a barley corn, and judiciously placing and 

 thrusting it into the cherry, form as it were your beak, and that is not all, for it 

 will foroi a good head and beak, provided, as I said before, it is judiciously done ; 

 others take an oat, but as I think the goldfinch beak the handsomest, I would 

 advise the inexperienced Fancier to get the head of a goldfinch and keep it by 

 him for his observation. 



The wart or wattle on the beak should be very fine and as little of it as possible, 

 resembling as it were a thread drawn across the beak, and where this fineness of 

 wattle can be obtained it adds greatly to the beauty of the bird, and a sure mark 

 of its being well bred, besides giving the appearance of a more decided stop. 



THE EYE. 



The brighter and more prominent the better, like the eye of a fish, 

 (take for example the bright eyed Perch,) and it is the general opinion 

 among the Fanciers, that the eye should he fixed in the centre of the 

 head. I will here endeavour to show you what would apparently give the 

 appearance of a loftier, broader, and less "behind the head," — suppose, for 

 argument sake, that the head was an inch perfectly round, divide the 

 one inch into sixteen equal parts, and if you place the eye one sixteenth more or 

 less below the centre of the head, the more lofty headed the Almond I'umbler 

 will appear, or the reverse ; and the same holds good if the eye is placed back in 

 the head, giving the head a broader appearance in front, and less " behind the 

 head," which is opposite to what is called "duck-necked," by the Fanciers; but 

 the effect is still greater where the beak is found placed low on a round headed 

 Almond Tumbler, for it gives that truly beautiful and striking stop, which is not 

 eclipsed' by any other portion of the bird, and which is held in such high esti- 

 mation by the best Fanciers. 



The eye should be free from a thick skin or flesh around it, which to Fanciers 

 is a great defect, a beading may look very pretty on a miniature frame, but is 

 the very reverse to the eye of the Almond Tumbler ; the eye should be feathered 

 close to the edge and the more bright and silvery or pearl coloured the iris of the 

 fsye is the better. 



