Various Off-colours in Almonds. 
149 
places a little grizzly towards the centre, especially in the flight. Often also there will be a feather 
nearly all white in the tail or flights, besides the white markings on the body. Such a bird it is 
which so often deceives inexperienced amateurs, and is termed an Agate Mottle. Briefly, it is a 
bird which possesses more white than the true mottle feathers. On the other hand, the true Mottle, 
when the flight and tail feathers are opened out, shows the feathers, both in the quill and the web, 
of a sound, distinct colour, be it red or yellow, the quill being free from white and the web from 
any grizzle. 
There are also met with a lighter class of Agates, which are nearly all white, and sometimes 
even all white. In the latter case the birds seldom have pearl eyes, being more generally black 
or bull-eyed, and being thus, can hardly be called anything but White Almond-bred Tumblers. 
There are again what are known as whole-coloured Agates, red or yellow ; which are 
frequently confounded, by those who do not know the difference, with whole-coloured Reds or 
Yellows. There is, however, just the same difference between the whole-coloured Agate and the 
whole-coloured Red or Yellow, as between the Agate Mottle and the true Mottle. On opening out 
the quill-feathers of the wing and tail, the true whole-feather has the quill and web of the same 
sound colour as the body ; while the whole-coloured Agate will have the quill white and the web a 
little grizzled. We point out these differences because they are important to those who wish to 
breed sound Reds or Yellows. 
Next we may describe the Splash or splashed bird, which is termed by some the Almond- 
splash, and by some are even called Almonds. The difference is however great, and lies in this, 
that the ground-colour, instead of being yellow as in the true Almond, is mixed with too much 
white, and the break of the feather nearly all black, so that the bird is short of yellow. The tail 
and flights also, instead of showing the three colours, have in most of them only the black and the 
white, with perhaps an Almond feather here and there only. Some of these splashed birds appear 
beautiful Almonds from the head to the rump, but there the true Almond ground ceases, and the 
want of yellow on the rump, and the too much black and white in the tail, betrays the Splash. Of 
course these birds are often most valuable for the breeding of well-spangled Almonds. 
There is in the next place the Dun ; and it is very singular that nearly all the Dun short- 
faced Tumblers are hens. In all our experience we do not think we have met with half a dozen 
cocks of this colour. When these birds are of the shade known as Golden Dun, they are most 
valuable for breeding from. These Golden Duns are such birds as are of a much lighter shade — in 
fact a pretty good yellow — on the breast, compared with the darker dun of the body. Some of 
these Golden Duns are slightly mottled on the rump ; this we prefer to those showing no white. 
Next to these is the red or yellow Whole-feather. These, to be true, must be of the same 
colour throughout the whole body, and especially on the rump ; and it will in fact be found that 
if good in colour upon the rump, there will be little the matter anywhere else upon the body ; 
though, as we have said, this outward appearance is not sufficient, and no bird is really a Whole- 
feather unless the quills of the tail and flight feathers are the same colour as the body. 
Finally, there is the Kite, perhaps the most useful colour of all, especially when of the right or 
best colour, for there be Kites and Kites in Almond-breeding. To outward seeming, these birds 
are what most would call black; but there is a bronze lustre, or as others call it, a red or fiery 
glow over and through the black, which makes the true Kite-colour. This is especially noticeable 
in the quill feathers ; but if all over the body so much the better. 
All these colours are produced, more or less, in breeding Almond Tumblers, and are used in 
breeding them, grand specimens having been produced with every one of them judiciously mated. 
Of course, one or other of them may have been bred for several generations, red from red, and so 
