General Points of Dragoons. 
199 
bird was selected, and this, strange to say, proved more full of faults than either, being skewer- 
beaked, a “made” face, broken-eyed, narrow in shoulders, hog-backed, light on the rump, almost 
Kite-barred, and the body-colour so light as to be almost silver, and in size no larger than an 
Archangel. Now, here was a case of a professed fancier finding fault with the award of a really 
good judge, and making admittedly (for the faults were not denied as soon as we pointed them 
out) three great mistakes in selecting a bird to suit even his own ideas. What made this case the 
more striking was, that only one bird (the winner) in the whole class deserved to be called a good 
Blue Dragoon, the other prize birds even being far behind in colour, while the winner alone was 
the same shade of blue throughout, the right colour in beak and eye, and nearly as perfect in points, 
according to the standard we shall lay down, as any bird we have seen since. Since that occasion 
we have ceased to feel surprise that the awards in Dragoons at pigeon shows very seldom give 
general satisfaction ; and while we also know that many mistaken awards really are made in these 
classes, we have so constantly found that those who have the worst birds are most dissatisfied and 
make the loudest noise, that we care nothing comparatively for fault-finding even in reports, 
unless the fault-finder gives at the same time some signs of having intelligent and consistent 
reasons for his criticism. 
No one has had greater success lately in breeding and showing Dragoons than Mr. Frank 
Graham of Birkenhead ; and as his views of what a Dragoon should be are nearly the same as our 
own, it will be convenient in the first place to give his description, as putting the main points into 
a brief compass. In going more minutely into the bird afterwards, our own remarks will then take 
somewhat the form of a comment upon his text. We need only premise that such divided 
opinion as still exists has settled down into what may be briefly described as a stouter bird both 
in face, wattle, and build, known as the London style ; and a smaller, thinner, slighter bird, 
thinner in face and wattle, which used to be known as the Birmingham model. Mr. Graham’s 
and our own remarks, then, describe the prevailing or “ London ” style of Dragoon : — 
“ A Dragoon should be nearly as large as a Carrier, and should possess perfect symmetry. 
The beak should be stout, measuring one and five-eights of an inch from centre of eye to the end, 
blunt at the point, and should fit close, the lower mandible being as heavy as the top ; in fact, 
resembling the much-coveted ‘ box-beak ’ of a Carrier in everything but length. The beak-wattle 
should be tilted, that is, peaked up behind, and gradually sloping down in front to within half an 
inch of the point of beak. The formation of the wattle should differ entirely from the Carrier’s ; it 
should be all one piece, not divided in three or of a cauliflower appearance, but smooth ; and at 
two to three years old the wattle should not at the highest point be above the level of the top of 
the skull. A Dragoon should be a Dragoon as long as it lives, and not become a Carrier when 
getting aged ; but at the same time it should have a moderate amount of wattle. The colour of 
the wattle should be light and powdery-looking. The eye-wattle I prefer as small as possible, and 
circular while under twelve months’ old, though it almost always becomes pinched behind after the 
age of eighteen months — not larger than a fourpenny piece — of fine texture, not fleshy, and the eye 
should be large and bold, and of a watchful appearance, giving you the idea that it is ready at a 
second’s notice to be off. In fact such is the case: if any of my Dragoons are caged, for comparison 
or anything else, and the door is left open for a second, they make a bolt for it ; and yet at other 
times they never beat themselves uselessly against the wires, but stand ever on the watch, clearly 
showing the intelligence and determination they possess over any other breed of pigeons. In 
describing the beak-wattle I forgot to mention that a Dragoon should be entirely devoid of wattle 
on the lower mandible. 
