78 
The Illustrated Book of Pigeons. 
With the exception of these differences, the upper wattles are very similar, and the greatest 
difference will be found in the wattle on the lower mandible, which, as we have already explained, 
very rarely shows the three portions, c', C", and c'", so distinctly as in the cocks. The cause of this 
we have also mentioned, though this diagram will explain it more fully. It lies in the fact that the 
last portion of wattle, c'“, really grows upon the upper mandible, but hangs so low over the lower 
mandible as to appear to belong to it ; and hence the hen, being almost always a little less 
developed, rarely has this portion of wattle so large as to come down low enough to give this 
appearance, but even in the best birds almost always appear as in the figure. We might go further, 
and add that it is very rare to see hens with more than the two portions, b' and b"' (omitting the 
middle portion, b"), on the upper mandible, and C' c" on the lower. This is owing to so many 
fanciers being fond of what they call “ a pretty little hen ; ” but when they see one with all the 
making of a grand bird, they are apt to exclaim, “ Too coarse !” and, if their own property, often 
part with it. But these very “coarse” birds, when mature, will often cause the very people who sold 
them to “ wonder where they came from,” little thinking it was from their own loft. The “ pretty” 
hens, on the contrary, we never yet knew to improve to any such degree as to be unrecognisable ; 
but, on the contrary, they look their best at eighteen months to two years old ; whereas those 
grand birds so foolishly termed “ coarse ” go on improving till four, five, or even six years of age. 
They are also, as a rule, fit to breed all that time, whilst the “ pretty,” delicate-looking hens, reach 
their best and cease breeding too, generally, in one half the time. A hen is also, of course, naturally 
inclined to develop less than the cock, so that more under-wattle than here shown is very rare. 
We never knew any single fancier breed so many grand Black Carrier hens as the late 
Mr. Everet, of Brighton, who obtained some of Mr. Corker’s best stock at a time when the latter 
had the best stud of Carriers we have ever yet seen in any one man’s possession. Mr. Everet kept 
this strain some years, and bred as we have stated ; but, singular to relate, during this period he 
bred but few particularly good cocks. The best of this stud ultimately found their way back to 
the old neighbourhood by passing into Mr. Wiltshire’s loft, and we were interested to find that the 
strain still retained its distinguishing property, being the best we even yet know of for breeding 
good Black hens. The strain of Mr. Colley, of Sheffield, to which we have before referred, 
possessed precisely similar peculiarities relating to the opposite sex, being so far as we know 
unequalled for producing fine cocks. As regards Dun Carriers, for at least the last twenty years 
no one has been able to equal the breeders of Plymouth, from which neighbourhood the best 
Duns we know of traced their origin. One hen in particular, bred by Mr. Squire, was the most 
wonderful Dun hen we ever saw ; and Mr. Holman and other Plymouth breeders have also produced 
grand birds. We have sometimes thought this may be accounted for by the fact that Duns have 
generally wattles considerably softer in texture than the Blacks, and that the warm and rather 
moist atmosphere of Plymouth causes a better development. Of late, there has been such a 
demand for Plymouth hens by those who knew their value, that the stock in that neighbourhood 
has been sadly weakened, and we fear it will be some time before it breeds as strong as it has done. 
The Blacks bred in Plymouth are usually of a raven depth of colour, and the Duns very rich and 
soft. The hens as a rule have wonderfully good eye-wattles, good length and shape of beak, fine 
long necks, and stand well on their legs ; their most usual fault being the want of a well-shaped 
beak-wattle ; and when this class of bird is mated, as we have described, with a bird having large 
beak-wattle, but faulty in eye-wattle, the very best results are often produced, the great difficulty 
being to obtain both wattles good in one bird. It is scarcely too much to say that the Plymouth 
blood has had a share in nearly all the best Carrier strains of the present day. 
The eye-wattle of this hen’s head will perhaps appear at first sight rather large, but this too 
