Judging Dragoons. 
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Therefore, a finely-wattled bird is always likely to produce one or two like itself ; and, of course, if 
a match as good can be found for it all the better ; but this is difficult, and hence it is rare to get 
good cocks and hens from the same pair, though, if good birds of each sex can be mated, it 
sometimes occurs. But even if both are good, care must be taken not to match birds, both of 
which are fully developed in beak and eye-wattle, unless for some special purpose. If such be 
done the progeny will probably have more wattle than is desired, as the Dragoon, like other wattled 
pigeons, can readily be increased in the development of these points by careful breeding, and 
would then, though as purely bred as possible, be too much like a Horseman, and unfit for 
competition as a Dragoon. If one bird has as much — fully as much — as it should have, it should, 
therefore, be matched to one very slightly under the mark ; and on the contrary, a spindle-beaked 
kind of bird, if bred at all, should be matched to one with too much wattle, but of fair shape. We 
do not like breeding from such birds as these last at all, but such a match is the only way of 
getting any good from them. But there are more trifling variations from the right standard 
without going so far as this ; and, as we have already stated that whenever a cock measures more 
than two and a half inches round the wattle, or at most a quarter inch more, he should be no longer 
considered a good Dragoon, and a little less is to be preferred, still, a trifling excess may make a 
good match with a hen which, though not spindle-beaked, has less wattle than she ought. 
Those who, after what we have said, still prefer the thin-faced “ Birmingham ” style, have no 
such difficulties to contend with. The proper blue or other colour will have to be attended to as 
by others ; but as regards beak and wattle they will have no trouble. A single pair of thin-faced 
birds will breed as true as steel in this point, and give them all they want. 
Some may wish to have good and stout beaks, but less wattle than we have shown, though 
not altogether the Skinnum type. Such should match birds well bred, but both under eighteen 
months old, and whose wattle is not, therefore, fully developed. This is the only way to preserve 
a stout beak with rather less wattle, and in this way the amount of wattle may be controlled ; but 
there is no point so easily lost, and so hard to regain, as the stout beak, if thin and spindle-beaked 
birds be once allowed to contaminate the strain. 
JUDGING DRAGOONS. — We hardly know at which age the Dragoon appears most 
attractive. When young it certainly has a grace and beauty of contour which to some extent it 
loses later on, while at mature age it shows certain properties that age alone can develop. We 
differ from no one who may prefer one period or the other ; but as we have already pointed out, 
when the two meet in one class, judging them fairly together becomes almost impossible, and has 
led to much of the mistake as to there being “two styles,” when it has been simply young birds in 
the one case, and old birds in the other. Still there is one important point to remember. Many 
Dragoons, when young, show all the qualities of beak and wattle that can be desired ; but as age 
comes on, and the head “makes up” and the wattle “breaks,” then comes too often disappointment 
and vexation. One side will come too much peaked, or too ragged, or some other glaring fault 
will appear — that is, in the type we advocate. The thin-faced birds can be bred by the dozen with 
no difficulty, and that is the very reason we cannot consider them a correct or high type of pigeon. 
But this being so, it can hardly be said that the finest young Dragoon does more than promise to 
be a good one ; whereas a good old bird must have been good through all his successive stages ; 
and for these reasons we consider that a really good old bird should never be beaten in competition 
by a young one. But with fine young birds in a class this course, too, fair as we consider it, must 
give so much dissatisfaction, that all who have studied the subject will admit there can be no 
really fair competition in Dragoons except in separate classes for young and mature birds. They 
