The Beak and Eye. 
147 
THE BEAK. 
The beak of the Almond should be whitish, or pinky-white, similar to the colour of the finger- 
nails, though it is not common to see the beak of the cock a perfect colour, his being usually 
correct in the lower mandible, while the upper is more of a Vandyke-brown, or even sometimes 
black. This is, however, a comparatively unimportant point, only to be weighed in close competi- 
tion, as we would not object much to any bird unless both mandibles were black, or what is called 
a Kite-coloured beak. This is a great fault, as it gives a coarse appearance, however good otherwise 
the bird may be, but it is only found in the hard-feathered birds, or those which are too deep in 
ground-colour. The grand points in the beak are the size and the shape ; as a bird may have an 
exceedingly short beak, and yet it may be bad. The kind of beak most esteemed, but also most 
rare, is known as the Goldfinch beak. When perfect it resembles that of the bird from which it 
takes its name, on a small scale, and, if not too long, adds much to the fineness of the head. But 
some of the Goldfinch beaks are so long that they become wry-beaked, one of the mandibles 
crossing the other. Such a beak must always be kept trimmed with the scissors, so as to be as 
close-fitting as possible, otherwise the bird, being unable to preen itself properly, will soon swarm 
with vermin, and very likely also become cankered in the beak. Hence birds having Goldfinch 
beaks at all long must always be well looked after, and attended to on the least sign of the beak 
becoming wry, and on the whole we prefer as the safest form of beak that which more resembles 
the half of a barley-corn. This class of beak being shorter scarcely ever requires attention, and 
always looks well ; and if the skull be high, short, and good, it shows as well as anything the 
beauty of the Short-faced Tumbler. The upper and lower mandibles should be of about the same 
thickness, close-fitting, and straight. There is a kind of beak to be particularly avoided, namely, 
that in which the upper mandible appears much more massive than the other one, hanging, as it 
were, a little over it, and showing a hook or curve downwards at the point, something like the beak 
of an Owl Pigeon. No matter how short such a beak is, it never looks well, giving a coarse 
appearance to the head at best, and in addition, being nearly always accompanied by a coarse 
wattle, which is about the worst fault that can be found in a Short-Faced Tumbler, giving beak and 
head altogether a common coarse look which every fancier will refuse to look at. This fault 
is rather apt to be hereditary, so that we advise all our readers carefully to avoid either a coarse 
beak or coarse wattle, unless they particularly require the bird for the breeding of colour only, and 
on that account are willing to run the risk. 
Length of face is measured from the front of the eye-wattle to the point of the beak. We 
decline to give any standard of length, as others have done, knowing well that such is deceptive, 
and that a bird may be really very short in face, and yet measure rather long. This depends 
chiefly on width of skull ; for it is obvious that in a very broad-skulled bird the “ bevel ” to the 
point of the beak will make a great difference in length of measurement, so that a short-faced bird, 
if broad in skull, might really measure longer than a quite common-faced pigeon. The best-faced 
pigeon is that which would appear shortest if the skull were supposed to be cut in two longi- 
tudinally, and the length measured on this ideal median line. 
THE EYE. 
The eye of the Almond should be white — or as many fanciers term it — “ as white as a fish.” 
The more the white shows round the pupil of the eye, the more attractive does the bird look. 
Some of the darker birds have a reddish shade, which gives a fiery appearance ; while other dark 
birds have little or no white, but are what is called broken-eyed, which looks nearly as bad as being 
