The Illustrated Book of Plgeons. 
158 
caught in the act, after which denial is, of course, useless ; and that is in fact one mode in which we 
acquired knowledge of the trick. But we also know the experience of other fanciers who, with the 
best stock, never could produce the same head and beak properties as their rivals, until, either by 
good fortune, favour, or bribery, they got possession of the grand secret, after which all their 
difficulties vanished. 
But we have just called it “ cruelty and we do so because we are bound to say emphatically 
that it is a cruel process. We have been most unfairly attacked already for stating things that are 
commonly done, as though we defended and advised fraud. We appeal to our own pages. In 
some cases, such as cutting away the spouts from a wattled pigeon, where the operation is needed 
for the bird’s own comfort, we refuse to regard it as any fraud at all, and would have all open and 
above board, and teach the young amateur how to relieve his bird with equal success as his older 
rival. In other cases we have defended and recommended nothing, but simply recorded facts as to 
what was commonly done ; and, in doing so, we contend that the obvious tendency of making them 
generally known is to facilitate detection, and thus check whatever may be dishonourable. But in 
this case let there be no mistake about our feeling on the subject. We regard the process as a 
cruel and barbarous one, though we cheerfully admit that the amount of cruelty varies a great deal. 
If the bird have a naturally good head, being bred from good, yet honest-headed parents, it 
requires very little treatment indeed to make the head an extraordinarily good one ; and if carefully 
and gently done, in this extreme case it may perhaps be almost granted that there is no cruelty at 
all. And we know how many will “ take us up ” here, and affirm that such is the case with 
all the “ really good ” heads shown, and that no such head can have been made out of an inferior 
one. We are very sorry to say we must explicitly contradict such a statement. We have seen 
and purchased birds for their “ grand ” heads, which we afterwards found were the produce of 
“pleasant-headed” pigeons (a “pleasant ” face or head in the Tumbler fancy is one a little better 
than that of a common flying Tumbler), and we have seen the whole course and result of the 
operation in many other cases ourselves, and have seen very plain heads “ made ” into remarkably 
good ones. These plain birds, then, require the operation so much and so often before they are 
“ done enough ” to pass as good Short-faces, that the signs can often be detected in the finished 
skull by a careful eye, and the cruelty in this case is very great. One proof of this is the simple 
fact that not a few die under it, though this usually happens with fanciers who try to do too much 
at a time. But when this is not the case, the bird’s life is still shortened, as will soon be found on 
comparing the age attained by one severely “made” with that of any honest-headed Tumbler. 
The causes for this are several, and we state the chief, as they will clearly point out the real nature 
of this barbarous treatment. In the first place, the beak being bent upwards, while the base of the 
skull is crushed inwards, the passage of the nostrils is partially closed, and if the bird operated 
upon is of a plain type, almost entirely so. This interferes, of course, very seriously with the 
breathing powers, the bird being obliged to breathe as much or more through the mouth as by the 
nostrils, and even with this assistance (which is most unnatural to all animals, and has many well- 
known evils even in man) the poor sufferer is often seen panting, with the wings hanging loose, as 
if in the last stage of consumption. We have seen this often in birds not more than three years 
old, which is nothing for a Tumbler, as these birds, when healthy, live to a greater age than any 
other of the high-class pigeons. Further, the upward bending of the beak often causes the sides of 
the mouth to be much more open than when left to nature ; and in this opening the dust and air 
are apt to corrode the surface and cause canker, as already described in other varieties. Should 
this happen, still worse follows ; for as the nostrils are almost sure to be also somewhat affected, and 
owing to the want of breathing power cannot be cleansed by the expulsion of any matter which 
