KINDS OF EYE-WATTLES. 77 



inch is as mucli as there is room for to be truly circular, we 

 must consider this kind of eye to be the true Carrier type, and 

 the only one which preserves all the acknowledged charac- 

 teristics of the bird. It is usually of a slight pinky or flesh 

 colour ; and we have heard a judge object to this, but never 

 when he had any pretension to a practical knowledge of the 

 pigeon he was judging, the thinner and harder eyes being pre- 

 ferred by all Carrier breeders of whom we have ever asked a 

 question on the subject. On the other hand, this kind are 

 far more liable to be " pinch-eyed " than those next to be 

 described. 



This is what is known as a thick or "fleshy" wattle — a- 

 kind that has greatly increased of late years. There can be 

 no doubt that this formation has sprung up from the long- 

 continued breeding for immense development, which has pro- 

 duced a more soft or spongy kind of the peculiar formation of 

 which wattle consists. This kind of eye is usually whiter than 

 the other, and has much less of lacing (or fine wrinkles) in it ; 

 it is also much less liable to grow "pinched." For these 

 reasons such soft and fleshy wattles often appear exceedingly 

 attractive in young birds ; indeed, prizes are generally given 

 to them the first season, since they alone usually have suflacient 

 development to contend in the show-pen. But as they get 

 older their beauty is almost always lost in various ways. 

 There is no "distance," or not enough; so that as the beak- 

 wattle makes up, both eye and beak-wattles are crowded to- 

 gether ; and they grow at last so thick that we have measured 

 many birds which were over an inch and a half from outside 

 to outside of each eye. Some of these birds had been great 

 prize-takers, and the best of them had enormous beak- wattles 

 of excellent shape (though some of this had been got by 

 cutting); but such a width is, in our opinion, contrary to the 

 whole character of the bird. No doubt the eye-wattle had 

 rolled over the skull, so as to make the width of " feather " 



