Matching Barbs. 
259 
stud, this being the most valuable of all the properties, so that we would even be satisfied with less 
substance in beak to secure an extraordinary good skull. The skull and a good beak we would 
therefore look for most in the cock ; and as these points arc very apt to be accompanied, say with 
some deficiency of wattle behind the eye, we would look for a hen to correct this fault. One very 
usual plan is to match the Black cock to another Black ; and this very often answers well if the 
hen really has the points the other bird lacks ; but it is so seldom we see Black hens not them- 
selves faulty in eye-wattle, that it is not easy to match Blacks well. If we had a Black hen really 
good in skull, wattle, and colour of beak, she would be a capital match ; and we would even risk 
the closest relationship for a really first-rate match, though not repeating it. It is, however, very 
rarely indeed such matches can be found, the Blacks being more than any colour liable to the 
faults both of pinch eye and dark beak. For the improvement of either or both these, then, with 
a Black cock thus faulty but fine in skull, we would select a Dun hen, this colour generally having 
a much softer and more regular eye-wattle, and very often also a wider and better class of skull 
than the Black hens, and almost invariably white beaks. Hence a Dun hen, besides producing a 
good black feather, is almost always the best match that can be found for a Black cock. The 
colour of the Dun matters little ; if it be dark she will be very likely to produce pairs of Blacks in 
the nest, while if of a very light Dun, there may perhaps be both Duns ; and if of a medium 
shade, there may probably, as with Carriers, be a black and a dun in each nest, the cock in the 
case we suppose being almost always the black one. Few Dun Barbs are, however, so light as 
average Dun Carriers, many being nearly black, and hence breeding more Blacks than Duns, 
which is another reason why the breeder need not fear using Duns, even if he does not care for the 
colour compared with Black. Most of the best Black cocks we know have been produced by this 
match of a Black cock with a finely-wattled and good-skulled Dun hen. 
There are very few Dun cocks in comparison to the Blacks ; but those few are, as a rule, very 
good. Their superiority lies more particularly in eye and skull properties, but they are seldom so 
good in thickness of beak, or have so much jew-wattle. For these reasons we would match them, 
if possible, to suitable Black hens, which are more apt to be faulty in eye-wattle and form of skull, 
but better in beak and beak-wattle, each supplying the deficiencies of the other, and at the same 
time keeping up the desired pale colour in the beak, and preserving the beak-wattle from that 
particularly unsightly fault of a black tinge. Of course in either of these matches we do not 
mean that it is any use merely to match black with dun because they are those colours, but solely 
to mate such properties as we have described. The great thing to avoid in breeding Blacks 
together is not to match on any account two birds both having black or even stained beaks. 
If a Dun cannot be had, and a good Red can, by all means breed it to the Black, as all Reds 
have white beaks, and will besides greatly improve the colour of the eye-wattle, which the Dun 
does not. For this reason, if a Red of equal quality can be had, we would even prefer it to the 
Dun, the deep scarlet of the wattle, which almost always proves soft in texture, being a point 
adding greatly to the appearance of any bird. It is, however, very difficult to get a really good Red 
hen, owing to their being not much used for breeding with Blacks. The commonest fault in Red 
hens is absence of the coveted form and substance of beak, and this we suppose is the reason they 
are little used. With more Reds to choose from, however, this would no doubt mend, and as they 
are mostly good in eye-wattle, we hope to see the cross more used, as the most likely means of 
seeing more really good Red Barbs. It is singular that while the Barb, owing to the many crosses 
of colour, “sports” more than almost any pigeon, so that we have seen almost every colour 
produced from one pair during the same season, we can hardly, if indeed ever, remember to have 
seen a Red yet all over of the proper colour, there being always some variation from the rump to 
