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The Illustrated Book of Plgeons. 
endurance. Almost every judge seems to differ; and not only so, but we have repeatedly known 
the very same judges judge the very same birds, as nearly alike in condition on the two occasions 
as could possibly be, in a totally different manner ; and not only Mr. Colley, but others we could 
name who would have been an honour to the pigeon fancy, have been driven out of it by such 
ignorant and contradictory awards. This state of things causes at times much ill-feeling and 
unjust suspicion ; for if a young beginner is thus unjustly disappointed, he is often apt to dispose 
of the bird cheaply to some one who knows its value ; and if the new owner — especially when a 
dealer — wins with it at the next show, as is very likely to be the case, it is at once said that he 
has “got the bird up,” and thus deceived the judge. At times perhaps a little “improvement” 
may have been effected ; but very often this is not the case, the bird being shown in the precise 
condition in which it was purchased. We have known a judge describe to a loser the sort of 
Carrier he professed to admire, and when this exact pattern was put before him pass it unnoticed, 
yet give it first prize the next week ; and we have known such a one, when charged with the 
inconsistency, state that the bird was either not the same or had been altogether transformed, 
when we have known it to be in precisely the same condition as when shown before. 
The chief cause of these ridiculous vagaries is, no doubt, that having no thorough knowledge 
of the variety, the judge is led away at one show by some fine property, and at the next by some 
other. Thus, at one show there is a bird with an extraordinary beak-wattle, and his eye being 
attracted by that, the bird wins. At the next, the first that “ happens” to strike his eye is another 
with beautifully narrow and regular skull and fine eye-wattles, with perhaps good neck and 
carriage ; so, though the first bird is there, this second bird wins. And so on. No doubt there are 
cases of collusion, if not of actual fraud ; and no doubt also, many judges, if they remember a bird, 
will sometimes make really erroneous awards to preserve consistency ; but, as a rule, we believe 
the case to be pretty much as we have stated, and to be the result of honest ignorance. 
The drift of our general remarks has already been to insist on the Carrier being judged, not 
by any one point, however extraordinary, but as a whole ; and to lay stress upon the general 
harmony and just proportion of all the points in any given bird. This one principle will nearly 
prevent such gross errors as we have alluded to ; and it now only remains to give what we consider 
the proper relative value of different points or properties in estimating the show rank of a bird, 
with such remarks in explanation as may seem proper. 
POINTS IN JUDGING CARRIERS. 
Beak : length, 2 ; shape, 2 ; thickness, 2 ; colour, 1 7 
Beak-wattle : shape and form on upper mandible, 6 ; ditto on lower, 2 ; circumference, 
2 ; texture, 2 12 
Space between eye and beak-wattle . 2 
Eye-wattle : regularity of build all round, 3 ; diameter (without manipulation), 3 ; 
softness and texture, 2 ; lacing, I -9 
Skull : narrowness, 3 ; flatness, 1 . 4 
Gullet : well curved in 3 
Neck : length, 3 ; narrowness (especially near shoulder), 2 ; thinness (from side to side), 1 6 
Width and flatness of shoulders 2 
Width and fulness of breast . . 2 
Length of flights and tail 2 
Length and form of thigh . 4 
Length of leg (considered both from side and front) 3 
1 Colour 2 
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