The Illustrated Boots of Plgeons. 
i 14 
with. We admit this is at present difficult ; but as the difficulty attaches to getting good 
Reds at all, all the beginner in this variety can do is, by patience and perseverance, to lay hold 
of the best to be had. 
Two Reds thus bred together often produce a Yellow ; and when this is the case that Yellow is 
almost always a great deal better colour than if bred from the Red cock and Yellow hen, or vice versa. 
Hence, after a breeder has once got a fairly good strain of Reds, he will soon be able to get the 
right cross for his Yellows ; such a Yellow, bred from Reds on both sides, being much more valuable 
to cross either with Yellows or Reds than the usual half-bred bird; and, if a cock especially, is the 
very best matching for Yellow hens that can be. As we have already seen, it is the getting of such 
a good Yellow cock that is the great difficulty in breeding good Yellows, and this is the best 
method of obtaining such. In breeding Yellows, the same observation as to ages of the birds 
applies as in Reds. If young birds are bred from, the colour produced will be pale and washy; 
whilst those very same parents, kept till their colour has deepened and matured, will produce young 
much superior in tone. 
We believe this was the mode adopted by Mr. Ure in breeding Yellows. He tried for many 
years to breed Yellow cocks, and never could succeed until he finally obtained a Yellow cock from 
us, and one which has rarely if ever been surpassed. But having obtained this one cock — the 
grand difficulty — he easily bred more fine Yellow Pouters of both sexes than have been bred by all 
other breeders we ever knew together. We have had many of this strain in our own hands, and it 
rarely failed to come to the front in competition. The difficulty is simply the Yellow cock to 
commence with — that is, not a pale washy buff, but a good, sound, deep-coloured bird. 
Should the breeder find that, in spite of all he can do by breeding from sound-coloured birds 
of mature age, the colour of his Yellows really is falling off, he may then cross with the Red to 
advantage ; but even here such a purely-bred Red as we have described will be found far superior 
to one of the common stamp. The deep Yellow bred from such Reds, if one is obtainable, will be 
the best cross of all ; but one caution is necessary. The Reds bred from such a cross of the Red 
on to the Yellow should on no account be bred back to the Reds. That is what has so nearly 
ruined the Red-pied Pouter, as we have already seen. They should be kept to breed back with 
Yellows, for which they are often well adapted, or bred together, so as not to contaminate the 
Red blood. 
In Red and Yellow-pieds, more particularly, when once a breeder has got a strain which breeds 
tolerably true and produces good-coloured birds, he should be very careful, before introducing 
“ fresh blood” into his strain, to ascertain that the birds really are bred from Reds or Yellows. A 
careless selection — and especially if the new stock has been bred from a Mealy — will often cause 
years of regret. If a fancier has obtained possession of three or four pairs of any colour in 
Pouters, however, he will be able to go on at least five years without a cross, by carefully matching 
according to the other rules we will hereafter describe. The most will depend upon his hen birds ; 
it being size and strength that suffer first in this breed ; and without much care in this respect 
great degeneracy will soon be apparent. This has been especially proved by experience in the 
case of these very colours. We do not believe that the old London breeders who have been 
before referred to ever had such grand birds in the Blacks, Blues, and Whites as the best Scotch 
specimens now. We know, indeed, that Mr. Ritchie, of Glasgow, brought from London over forty 
years ago one pair each of these three colours, the best which could then be had (as he had special 
opportunities of procuring such), and we have been often assured both by himself and others who 
saw these birds, that they would certainly bear no comparison with those of the present day. But 
with Reds and Yellows the case is different ; and from many inquiries and facts that have come to our 
