The Yellow Ground-colour. 
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colours may be distributed or marked on the feather itself. A feather may, hovvevei, have the 
three colours, and yet not be a good one, as they may be so run into each other as to be more of a 
grizzle than what a standard feather should be. Such a grizzled feather we would prefer only 
yellow and white, rather than a grizzle of three colours. 
The tail of a good Almond is seen at its best at the age of about eighteen months. Many 
birds which are too deep in colour have their tails best at nine months ; but, as a rule, these birds 
being so strong in feather, lose all or nearly all the white during their second moult, and thus 
lose the property of a “ standard ” tail. We may say, indeed, that according to almost universal 
experience, a too deep-coloured or strong-feathered bird loses this point in the second moult ; so 
that, on this ground also, the soft rich yellow colour is infinitely to be preferred, as not only 
looking best in itself, but retaining its proper shade for a longer time, the strong-feathered bird 
only remaining a “ standard ” for one season ; for when it has arrived at the age of two and a half 
years, at which it has become nicely spangled on the shoulders, and looks well there , it will be 
found to have lost the white, and to have only two instead of three colours in most of its flights and 
tail feathers, thus losing its “ standard quality.” Besides this, such a bird at the same period will 
have become far too dark to look well from the head to the shoulders, and also on the breast. 
In a bird of the correct soft yellow ground, on the contrary, it will be found that the head, neck, 
and shoulders remain nearly the same shade, for one season more than the darker shade, besides 
being through both far more beautiful to the eye, as the black-spangled feathers with their green 
lustre, intermixed with the yellow ground, make a most attractive picture. 
But the greatest advantage of the yellow ground is, that it not only thus keeps for a season 
longer the proper colour on the head, neck, and shoulders, but also over the body, flight, and 
tail, and will sometimes be found to retain even perfect “ standard ” flights and tail for two 
seasons ; which, as we have seen, the dark birds never do. We have even known one or two birds 
keep the standard colours in flights and tail for three seasons, though we must say this is 
exceedingly rare ; but we have never seen a single strong-feathered bird that remained a 
“ standard ” Almond for more than one season. In making this statement, we do not refer to 
the Long-faced Almond, but to the Short-faced Tumbler alone. Some of the mealy-feathered birds 
will also retain the three colours in flights and tail for three seasons ; but as the mealy feather is 
to be carefully avoided for many reasons, we do not treat upon it here. No breeder wishes for a 
mealy-feathered Almond, although such will come even from the best stock ; when they do thus 
come, our advice to the breeder is, as soon as possible to exchange it for another, or at all events 
not to breed from it with any expectation of getting from it yellow-grounded birds. 
The yellow ground, then, is to be infinitely preferred on all accounts. In the first place, it is 
rarer; in the second place, it looks better; in the third place, it retains the “standard” colour in 
flights and tail for a much longer time ; and lastly, it keeps very nearly the same colour after the 
first moult, until after two seasons it finally moults too dark. Some of the strong-feathered birds 
look exceedingly well on the shoulders for several seasons, when their spangling looks very 
attractive ; but the tail and flights at the same time will more resemble those of a Kite. Owing to 
this progress in the feather, as we may call it, we have often been puzzled to decide when even a 
good-coloured Almond looks its best ; because, at the period when it is perfect in tail and flights, 
which is generally at about eighteen months old, it is rarely or never properly spangled with black 
on the body. At this period, unless the bird is of remarkably good carriage, the beauty of the 
“ standard” feathers (especially the flights) is not seen until the bird is handled, and these standard 
feathers opened out, so as to show their properties. On this account, perhaps, upon the whole, 
much as we admire a perfect tail and flights, we rather prefer the bird a season later, when the tail 
