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" Feather Fanciei:" would remark the deficiency of feather, apparently overlooking 

 the four other properties ; nevertheless do not lose your command of temper, but 

 do as I have done this season, provided the strength of your aviaries and lofts 

 will allow you to pick out of seventy pairs of birds as mine will, match up expressly 

 six pairs of the best feather, and most likely to throw feather, you will probably 

 be in a condition to challenge them to show for feather. 



I will be very brief in touching on the delicate subject of exhibiting a bird as 

 their own, although borrowed from another, for my own part I would as soon 

 challenge all England to show a bird, as some, (very few I hope in the Fancy,) who 

 would make a bet to show a bird of their own breeding, and then borrow the 

 best bird they could procure for the occasion ; I sincerely hope as I stated before 

 that this rarely occurs, but it has occured. If you fall in challenging all England, 

 you fall nobly, but if you are outwitted by a trick, you fall ignominiously. And 

 while I am treading on this delicate ground, in an especial manner I would call 

 upon the young Fancier that if. ever you are placed in a position, not the most 

 pleasant in the science of the Almond Tumbler, I allude to that of being appointed 

 one of the umpires, let honesty and integrity be as the breath of your soul, and if there 

 is no doubt on your mind that the two birds are equal, wash your hands as it were of 

 the responsibility, provided you are not already outvoted by calling in another 

 umpire or referee, and, above all things, err rather from want of judgment than de- 

 sign, for be assured the eyes of the Fancier would be upon your decision, and should 

 your decision be manifestly partial, you will bring down the detestation of the 

 whole Fancy upon you, and be stamped with infamy to the end of your days. 



It might appear to you that I would almost write anything rather than grapple 

 vrith the subject of matching and pairing the birds, I thought it would not be 

 amiss to go into my aviaries to see how I had matched my birds, and found that 

 I had nearly matched them all manner of ways, with the exception of head and beak, 

 so that I cannot exactly recommend you to the matching from my own aviaries ; 

 it is better to have ten pairs of good birds well-matched, than fifty pairs by 

 counteraction. Match up your aviary or loft of birds, commencing with your 

 best cock and hen, and going down till you come to birds that you do not approve 

 of, then discard them. I do not pretend to instruct you how to breed any given 

 feather in the AliViond, for after all, feather is only one property out of five, 

 therefore, it is absolutely necessary to guard the other properties in producing an 

 extra bird. It is possible that you may have a cock, so undeniably good in all the 

 five properties, or particularly in feather, head and beak ; and if it wa**possible 

 that you had a hundred hens, you might exclaim that you had not a heii good 

 enough, in head and beak to match over to him, and at last be driven to match 

 a kite hen, simply because they often run better in the head and beak than the 

 Almonds. The kite hen has the advantage over the dun hen, by producing better 

 sound black. The dun hen will produce a more yellow and soft ground, and will 

 not produce such good black in flight, tail and spangle, but appear smokey or dunnish, 

 unless the cock is amazingly strong in feather. Good sound whole feather Almond 

 bred Hens.with their rumps extra covered, namely : kites, duns, reds, or yellows, give 

 a sound foundation or ground, and by matching them over to an Almond or Splash 

 cock, you stand a great chance of breeding an Almond or Splash, and an Almond or 

 Splash hen may likewise be matched to whole-feather sound Almond bred cocks; 

 but I think it is absolutely necessary that the black feather should be visible either 

 in the cock or hen. It is possible that two whole-feather Feather birds may throw 

 Almonds or Splashes, but I think it is dangerous to try it, unless you are destitute 

 of a bird, that would be more suitable, it is then better to buy a bird. 



I cannot help thinking but that the ground of the Almond Tumbler, generally 

 speaking, has greatly improved in the last few years, being more yellow. I say 

 generally, for the gentlemen of the original Columbarian Society, always had good 

 feathered birds, but there were other Fanciers who had not : although it was 

 agreed that the feather should be black, white, and yellow ; some appeared as 



