246 BIRDS 



is not accompanied with bars. It is found chiefly among 

 Owls and Carriers. 



Grizzle is a mixture of blue and white, with the former 

 predominating, thus giving the effect of a blue bird which has 

 become deeply impregnated with white. The wings should 

 be evenly powdered with blue and white, while neck, wing 

 bars and tail are as dark as possible. Grizzles are best 

 crossed with blues, in fact this is quite necessary to keep the 

 color as it should be. Grizzles are found chiefly among 

 Dragoons, but an attempt is being made in England to pro- 

 duce Show Homers of this color. 



Pigeon Breeds 



The origin and derivation of the many pigeon breeds are 

 so obscure, and so much confused by crossing, that to at- 

 tempt a systematic classification would necessitate discus- 

 sions and digressions that would exceed the bounds pi this 

 work. We shall content ourselves, therefore, with present- 

 ing the best known breeds in an order chosen as much from 

 convenience as from affinity. 



Fifty, or even twenty-five years ago, no writer on pigeons 

 would have thought of beginning his treatise without con- 

 sidering at first the four " high-class " breeds — the Carrier, 

 the Barb, the Pouter and the Short-faced Tumbler. Of 

 late years, however, the fact that over-specialization is as 

 fatal under artificial selection as under natural selection has 

 been demonstrated. The exaggeration of special characters, 

 which led to the extinction of prehistoric monsters, may 

 prove equally fatal in the case of domesticated creatures. 

 Accentuation of abnormal features, for themselves alone, 

 without regard to the symmetry of the whole, has turned 

 away the followers of these four breeds, so that now their 

 very existence seems threatened. Attempts to revive them 



