6o 
The Illustrated Book of Pigeons. 
of such birds will get broken also, either by accident, or disease, or, more frequently still, through 
being tampered with to endeavour to improve its appearance; for many people of the scheming sort, 
when they have such a bird otherwise pretty good, will hold the beak in hot water, or squeeze it into 
a half-boiled potato for some time, by which it becomes soft and can be straightened. By this 
means the bird is made to look and measure well, and is quickly sold ; but soon afterwards the 
mandibles nearly always break off. After two or three months the upper mandible will often 
grow again, but the lower will not, and generally when the upper does grow it becomes twisted 
and deformed, after which the bird is almost useless even to breed, as it can neither feed nor 
preen itself properly, but huddles about in obvious discomfort and misery. We have seen birds 
measure as much as two inches and three-eighths from point of beak to centre of eye, but they 
were old birds, with such spindle-beaks as we have described, and with about three-eighths of an 
inch of the upper mandible projecting over and beyond the lower mandible. We have also 
seen birds free from this defect fully two inches in face, but these too were birds which had 
been manipulated in the nest-pan by their owners to straighten the beak. This is done on the 
fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth, and twelfth days, the beak being gently straightened by the fingers 
on each of these days, by which it gains an eighth of an incil in length, and sometimes more. 
But in every case of this kind we have ever seen, though length of beak was gained, the shape of 
the wattle was spoiled, the bending upwards at the point of the upper mandible, with the pressure 
downwards farther back, stopping the growth of the middle portion of the beak-wattle at b", which 
never develops so full and round as it should do and would have done had Nature been allowed 
to take its course. Now this very portion of the wattle is just what is the most difficult to breed 
of the proper figure ; therefore fanciers will do well to avoid such methods of making a long beak. 
There are, of course, many birds so tampered with that never would have had much more wattle 
than a heavy Dragoon. These are those most frequently operated on ; and as there are generally 
a number of persons willing to purchase what they think middling specimens of Carriers at a 
moderate price, and who do not know what the points of a Carrier are, the neighbourhood of 
London especially swarms with these “ made ” birds, as they are called. But very seldom have we 
known any really good fancier tamper with his birds, knowing as he does that a really good bird 
cannot be improved by it, but that what he gains in beak he will lose in wattle ; and knowing, also^ 
that meeting as he docs with good judges, he could not show such a bird before one without 
being detected. 
We have seen, and had pass through our hands, more Carriers than probably any one else, 
and can safely state that we never saw more than one bird with a good honest box-beak that 
measured two inches from the point to the centre of the eye. This bird was bred by Mr. James 
Montgomery, of Belfast, and was not only such a great length by measurement, but looked a great 
deal more. This, as we have tried to explain, is what should be sought ; and a bird only moderate 
in actual length, but which is of such fine proportions as to deceive the eye and look long, should 
be considered superior to another bird which has more, but appears to have less. And the birds 
which show best in this way are those which have a good length of mandible in front of the beak- 
wattle. Birds in which the wattles come close to the point of the beak are not only inferior in 
appearance, but especially if heavily “jewed,” as it is called, that is, if the under wattle comes too 
far forward, though such arc often exceedingly valuable for keeping up certain points in breeding, 
are liable to the lower mandible shrivelling up into almost nothing ; in fact, few such birds reach 
the age of three years without suffering in this way, or becoming cankered. The farther, therefore, 
the jew-wattle is back from the point of the beak the better. 
The very best box-beaks will scarcely ever remain perfectly close-fitting after the age of three 
