y UD GING A L MO\ T DS. 
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even a Kite, will almost always breed perfect eyes if the young be not tampered with. We contend, 
then, for our old principle, of giving to every point its fair relative value in judging ; and unless we 
arrive at this we shall never get any recognised mode of judging this bird, which seems in a more 
unsettled state than all, scarcely two judges agreeing about it. Whether our remarks may produce 
any greater uniformity we do not know. Many old fanciers, no doubt, will protest at being what 
they call “ dictated to,” but this is far from the spirit in which these pages have been penned. 
In what we have said as to the value of head-points, and the way they are produced, we have 
simply, against all our own private interests, stated facts ; and if these facts should lead to a 
reconsideration of certain points, and a higher value being set upon such as are really genuine and 
hard of attainment, such a result will be owing to the facts themselves, but even then no one 
point must be made all in all. In the absence of such a system, the present state of things is 
perfectly ridiculous as regard the judging of Almonds, each judge seeming to go by some particular 
point he is fond of, and in so doing causing an amount of ill-feeling and unjust suspicion it is hard 
to calculate. For example, an amateur goes to a dealer (we will frankly admit that we speak from 
painful experience) and purchases a pair of his best Almonds. Then at some show, where they do 
not hit the special fancy of the judge, they are passed over. He is annoyed, comes back to the 
dealer, and eventually the birds are repurchased by the latter. The amateur now determines he 
will only purchase actual winners at a show, and accordingly he attends the next large show 
within his reach ; when, going up to the winning pen with a view to purchase, he finds them the 
very birds he had once had and returned to the dealer. Very likely some friend tells him he “ is 
not up to the dodges of these dealers yet ; that these birds are now got up to win,” &c., whereas 
they are shown precisely the same as before, but under a different judge (we have known it happen 
even under the same judge, but put it as “ mildly” as we can). If this is thought too strong a 
picture, we go further, and say that in one particular case we have good cause to recollect, a certain 
pen of Almonds, with the very same competitors (all habitual frequenters of shows know how the 
same birds will meet again and again), changed places in this way five times within seven weeks, 
under three different judges, so that anyone may have and show the very best pair ever seen, and 
yet can have no certainty that he will win under the present system, which seems only adapted to 
making exhibitors savage, since no one can at all reckon upon being successful. How many 
amateurs have been driven out of this beautiful fancy by such a state of things we should be afraid 
to say ; we know of enough to make us feel and write strongly upon the point. We insist that no 
one is able, or has any business to judge Almonds, until, whether he agree with our values or not, 
he is able to estimate and compare fairly all the good and bad properties of the good birds in the 
class, without being obliged to take refuge in such reasons as “ this bird had a broken eye,” or 
“ this one’s head was just like one that Mr. So-and-so gave first to at such-and-such a show,” or 
“there was something striking about the first-prize bird,” all which we have heard alleged as 
reasons for the most ridiculous awards. 
We will finally give our estimate of the proper relative values, taking as our standard the 
young bird of the first year. 
POINTS IN JUDGING YOUNG ALMONDS. 
Feather : viz., ground-colour, 3 (of which reckon rump, 2, and head, breast, and 
shoulders, 1) ; markings on flights, 2 ; ditto on tail, 3 ; break or spangling of feather, 1 . 
Shape and carriage 
Beak : shortness, 1 ; fineness, 2 ; fineness of wattle, 1 
Head: height of skull, 2; roundness, 1 ; breadth, 1 
Eye : round and white 
Legs and feet (shortness and smallness) . . , 
9 
6 
4 
4 
2 
1 
21 
26 
