332 
BARBS AND BALDHEADS. 
inflating her crop, although not to the same extent as the cock. 
Some keep the sexes separate during the most severe winter months. 
The Powter's habitation should be at least two feet high, or he will 
acquire a habit of stooping. 
BARBS AND BALDHEADS. 
The Barb is an elegant little bird, very quiet and demure in its 
general appearance, yet full of fun and activity when occasion serves. 
At a short distance it might easily be mistaken for a Carrier, having 
a short back, a small waist, and a naked, wrinkled, red skin around 
the eyes, which is said to increase until the bird is four years old. 
The most esteemed Barbs are those which are perfectly black ; in 
these the prismatic colours in the neck show very beautifully, as 
does also the scarlet circle round the eye. Those of an uniform dun 
colour are next in order — pied mottled, or 'pied-feathered' birds, 
as they are called, are the commonest. The good points of a Barb 
are a broad even cere of naked red skin round the pearl-coloured 
eyes, long and thin neck, full chest, long body, and pinion feathers, 
and rather stout feet. This kind is a fertile breeder and a good 
nurse ; its name is said to imply that it came originally from Bar- 
bary. There is another variety of pigeon with a Turkish name, 
Mahomet, or Ma^vmet, which, some say, is nothing but a white or 
cream-coloured Barb, with a cross of the Turbit. In an old treatise 
on Pigeons published in 1795, we have a description of the latter 
bird — 'It is nearly of a cream colour, with bars across the wings 
as black as ebony. The size much like that of a Turbit, with a fine 
gullet, and in lieu of a frill, the feathers appear like a heron ; the 
head is short and inclined to be thick ; hath an orange eye, and a 
small naked circle of black flesh round the same, and a beak some- 
thing resembling a bullfinch's, with a smaU black wattle to it.' 
This pigeon, although an old variety, appears to be a sort of out- 
law, having no settled place in its family classification. There is in 
Germany a bird called Mahomet, of a breed between the Turkish 
and ScandinaAdan, and in France again a cross between the Barb and 
Scandinavian is called after the infidel prophet ; whether it is the iden- 
tical kind which is represented as sitting on his shoulder and whis- 
pering wonderful secrets into his ear, we cannot tell. By the way, 
sceptics assert that the prophet put peas into his ears, and so enticed 
the bird to his shoulder. 
THE LAUGHER 
Is said to come from the Holy Land, near Jerusalem. It is very like 
the blue House-pigeon, with the addition of a small feathery peak on 
the curve of the head ; the general colour is grey or grizzled. This 
is a very uncommon kind. The name is derived from the curious 
note of the cock, soniewhat resembling inward laughter- 
