114 PIGEONS. 



the value of the bird. Such a feather, iu conjunction with the other four properties, 

 is to be obtained by judicious matching. 



" 2. Carriage. — This important feature is considered by many as distinct from 

 the shape of the bird. I shall treat them as one, considering that a bird of good 

 carriage cannot be a bad shape ; and if of a bad shape, it is impossible for it to be 

 of a good carriage. 



" The neck of the Almond should be short, and widening to its base, so as to 

 become, imperceptibly as it were, part of its body. The chest should be broad 

 and prominent ; the legs short, and placed in the centre of the body ; the bird in 

 its whole character presenting a series of curves flowing easily and gracefully one 

 into the other,, so that it is not readily perceived where the one ends and the 

 other begins. 



" The wings should droop on the ground, a position which adds much to their 

 beauty, as it displays the markings of the flight-feathers. 



" 3. Eye. — The eye should be large, circular, and prominent, placed in the 

 centre of the profile of the head, and not close to the top of it, as it appears in the 

 Carrier. Its pupils should be black, and the hides pearl-white — hence the denomi- 

 nation of pearl-eyed. I may remark that this property is one of the very earliest 

 that is lost, when breeding very high in feather, or where the birds are very closely 

 ' bred in,' and require ' crossing.' 



" 4. Beak. — The beak should be short, fine, and straight, similar to a grain of 

 the oat, cut across the centre and placed horizontally in front of the head. In 

 colour it should be white, or nearly so. This beak, which I designate the corn- 

 beak, I consider preferable to the goldfinch beak, it not being so likely to shoot out 

 in length as the other, or become twisted and misshapen. In conjunction with 

 the beak (of which it is generally considered a part) is the wattle at its base ; this, 

 while serving as a nostril, should be merely large enough to conceal the appearance 

 of the roots of the feathers immediately in front of the head ; it should appear to 

 spring from the head, and be partly buried under the feathers, not standing out in 

 strong relief, as if challenging attention instead of having to be looked for to 

 be seen. 



" 5. Head. — I now come to that much- vaunted property — the head ; upon this I 

 have but little to observe. 



" Setting aside the remarks so frequently saluting you at the meetings of brother 

 fanciers, as — What a stop ! What a breadth ! Splendid front ! &c. &c, I shall 

 describe it as perfectly circular in form, planted firmly and shortly on the neck, 

 varying in size in the cock and hen, but attaining a circumference of three inches 

 and three-quarters in a well-proportioned cock bird. 



" I have thus endeavoured to give my idea of what the Almond Tumbler should 

 be, and what I hope to see it — not in isolated cases, but as a whole. 



" When possessing the foregoing properties in a fair degree of perfection, it is 

 by the varied splendour of its plumage, the beauty of its carriage, the brightness of 

 its eye, the delicate fineness of its beak, and the uniqueness of its head, added to 



