PIGEOXS AXD ALL AlJOrT THEM. 41 



to my loft. TliL'i-c wa.s one good bird in the lot, l)y the wuy. 

 The re,st I could beat to death in my own loft. Unt I had the 

 exijericnce, and jiaid for it as u.sual. 



I do not mean to suggest that all the Eiigli.^li aud Scotch 

 fanciers are not honorable, in fact I know of several that are 

 absolutely fair and square, but the great majority arc tricks- 

 ters who have the happy faculty of "weeding out" every 

 bird they don't want, when they get an order from America, 



No fanciers on earth can get their birds iu better condition, 

 and none can ''fake" birds so skilfully as our cousins across 

 the water, and it is a well knovvir fact that birds that have 

 even reached this side in good condition, have soon ' gone to 

 pieces " or have, after their first nmult, or after new feathers 

 have had a chance to grow, shown the effects of the most 

 palpable trickery in "plucking." It is also a fact that in 

 England and Scotland, especially at the small shows, where 

 breeders of no standing are apt to show, the hardest work of 

 the judge is, not to find the best bird, but to find the best bird 

 that is shown fairly. 



The best fanciers on the otlier side have taken vigorous 

 steps to stoj) all this fraud, but they are far in the minority, 

 for the great masses of the small breeders are tricky and con- 

 sider it not only not dishonest, but an evidence of superior 

 smartness, to be able to get a faked bird past a judge. 



Remember I am not speaking of those honorable English 

 and Scotch fanciers whose good nauics are a household word 

 among our fanciers, but of the dirty little pettifoggers who 

 swarm in the fancy in Great Biitain, and they unfortunately, 

 are liable to be the very ones to entrap the unsophisticated 

 American fancier who decides to import. 



