Birds to be A voided. 
8i 
birds arc far more abundant and more easily procured which resemble in their faults the one now 
to be described than which approach in merit those we have given as models. In Fig. 37, then, 
we give such a head, and will endeavour to specify its many faults, and the reasons why they 
are so pernicious. 
Firstly, although a young bird at the age of four to seven months, when the beak should be at 
its best, it will be seen to be what is termed hooked or spindle-beaked, especially in the upper 
mandible. Not only so, it has not nearly so much substance in the lower mandible as in the upper, 
and although at an age when both should be alike in length, the upper mandible is longer than the 
lower and overhangs it considerably. When such faults as these are seen in a young bird they 
will only become worse and worse with age, and all the “ dodges ” in the world cannot give such a 
beak the appearance of a good one. This is, in fact, the class of bird (though perhaps most of them 
are hardly so bad as this) that generally undergo manipulation of the beak while in the nest ; 
but though this may so far succeed as to give some appearance of length of face, the shortness 
and little substance of the lower mandible alone, apart from other signs, reveal the trickery to 
every good judge. 
The next great fault to be noticed is the formation of the beak-wattle, which is not only low, 
but flat from front to back, showing no inclination to rise at either the middle or back part, while 
yet what there is of it comes up square at the back, withouF’any inclination to arch forward 
towards the beak. The only place where such a wattle as this ever becomes well developed is at 
the part which overhangs the lower mandible ; and the older such a bird grows the more 
unsightly does it become in the eyes of a real fancier, making the skull appear higher than the 
beak-wattle, than which nothing can more disgust a good Carrier judge. This fault, once imported 
into a good strain ot birds, will take a lifetime to “breed out” again, and cannot therefore be too 
sedulously avoided by any one who has reason to set any value upon his stud. 
The bad form of the gullet will also be noticed : and if this fault be visible in a young bird, 
which looks its best, it is sure to become worse as time goes on ; and such is one of the most 
unsightly faults a Carrier can have ; for, as we have already explained, however good it may 
be in other points, if it is full in the gullet it can never appear to have a handsome, long face. 
Finally, though the eye-wattle of most young birds is pretty regular in build round the eye, 
this one will be seen to be ragged and quite irregular, even at such an early age. 
Each and all of these faults, though they may not be more conspicuous, or even so much so, 
as some others to a careless eye, have this peculiarity, that they become worse or more apparent as 
age comes on, never by any chance becoming less so. Birds which manifest them should therefore 
be discarded. 
Before dismissing the question of good and bad heads, it may be as well to say a few words 
respecting what fanciers call a “walnut” wattle. Instead of the three portions b', b", and b'", this 
form of wattle exhibits a tolerably regular walnut-shaped formation ; the chief point in which is 
that, like that we have been describing, it arches nicely away from the eye-wattle and leaves a 
clear space, as we have so repeatedly described. A wattle of this class should be matched with a 
good peg-top wattle, when it may be expected that the young will resemble the parent of the same 
sex. This wattle is well represented in the plate of the Dun Carrier. 
The next point on which it is necessary to say a few words is that of breeding for colour. In 
breeding Blacks, the general experience of Carrier breeders is, that if this colour is constantly bred 
together the metallic brilliancy is lost ; and hence most prefer to breed a Black cock with a Dun 
hen. But to get satisfactory results both Black and Dun must be of the proper shade. Some 
Blacks are so bad as actually to show an appearance of bars, with other traces of having been 
11 
