l\ 



3^ 



done I discard it and throw overboard aa unworthy of belief. But last, the beak j 

 notwithstanding the above remarks as regards feather and head, there are some 

 few l-anciers, of whom it is asserted they make the beak, (which is so much 

 admired), by breaking the upper mandible when the bird is a few da> s old ; but it 

 may be detected, fr(im the injury it has received, similar to our own flesh, when 

 we have received a severe pinch ; it may also be detected in the bird when grown 

 up, by the position of the beak, it has an unnatural appearance, the beak pointing 

 upwards. Having made these remarks, (the reason I'shall inform you by-and-bye,) 

 1 again caution you, my young Fancier, not to make a charge by hearing, or even 

 reading this Treatise, but keep a still tongue and put the question to yourself, 

 how it is possible that you might discover a bird made up as regards head and 

 beak. I informed you just before that the beak has an unnatural ajipearance of 

 being thrust upwards, which is the opposite of its natural tendency, and likewise 

 at the same time appearing as though thrust further back into the head ; but I will 

 endeavour to give you a better rule or criterion to judge by, — my experience 

 teaches me that these tricks cannot be played upon the head and beak of the 

 Almond Tumbler, without greatly distorting the eye, making it appear very 

 unnatural and greatly ofTending the eye of the Fancier ; it appears ,as though it 

 was a weak watery eye, always winking and blinking: at the same time should 

 you, on looking at a bird, believe tricks have been played upon it, but has a full 

 bold beautiful fair eye, I think you would be drawing a wrong conclusiou, and if 

 the bird was for sale, you are not bound to buy it, being in doubt. 



There are Fanciers who have time on their hands, scarcely ever look at their 

 oung birds in the nest, but have got into the habit of stroking the beak upwards; 

 f they do nothing more than this I do not find fault ; but I know it is the very 

 contrary of what I do, being determined to see what the beaks will come to in a 

 natural way ; owing to this and having very fine beak birds, I should not think 

 there was a Fancier who bred more cross or wry beaks than myself. It is not the 

 fault of the Almond Tumbler, but of the Fancier, in not keeping the beak straight, 

 for they are not hatched crooked or awry, but are wrenched by the feeding of the 

 old ones, and those beaks that we see crooked it shortened and pared to the end of 

 the quick, would look very ditferent. If I examined a crooked beak bird, and saw 

 by trimning its beak to the quick, if it did not exceed five-eighths of an inch, or 

 a little over, I would as soon breed from or sooner, than from a straight beak bird 

 that I knew nothing about ; well knowing how easy it is to keep the beak straight 

 while the bird is young and the horn is sufficiently pliable, but will not answer for 

 an old bird, as the horn is bard and brittle, and in the attempt to bend would snap 

 off. I do not know that it it is possible to make up the head of an Almond 

 Tumbler, but this much I do know, that it would be utterly imiiossible to produce 

 first-rate birds from such. The cause of my making these remarks is, you may 

 suppose that the Fanciers of the present day had not heard of these reports, and 

 this is the reason of its appearing in this Treatise, for I do not like writing on such 

 a dishonest subject, and as I informed you before, that if I possessed both ability 

 and dishonesty combined, I would not instruct you how to make up a bird ; the 

 only way I know of making a good bird is to breed it from two first-rate birds. 



I believe there are Fanciers at this time whose judgment of the Almond 

 Tumbler has never been surpassed, and is not likely to be eclipsed ; yet it is 

 possible that the head and beak Fanciers of the present day may persevere in 

 breeding such short-faced birds, as to enable the young and rising Fanciers to 

 breed birds whose distance shall not exceed the half-inch from the iris round 

 the pupil of the eye to the end of the quick on the beak. I have some in 

 my possession as short-faced as I have ever seen, but I never witnessed more 

 than two or three birds whose " Head and Beak," as it is called, did not exceed 

 the half-inch in the whole course of my life. Still, I believe in the course of 

 a few years, that the head and beak will be shortened, and that half-inch 

 distance birds will not be so rare, or considered so great a curiosity as they 

 are at the present time. 



