250 
The Illustrated Book of Plgeons. 
“ dodges ” named by us before, and with especial reference to the “ honest exhibitor having no 
chance,” as so often falsely represented, we have simply to say that it is the judge’s own fault if he 
does not detect it, since he has only to open the wing and count the flights , unless, of course, it be 
just at the moulting season. Flights being a point of merit, it is the duty of every Jacobin judge 
thus to open and count the flights of any bird to which he gives an award, and every good judge 
does so ; whence we would strongly advise the fancier to leave such a small blemish to the mercy 
of the judges, few of whom would attach very great weight to it, than to draw down on himself 
almost certain disqualification. Of course, in very equal birds the faulty feather would and ought 
to count, but it would seldom “throw out” a really grand Jacobin. Passing, however, from the 
foul inner flight, the class of outer flight shown in Fig. 57 is that to which we referred as “ short- 
flighted,” and which is so difficult to avoid in high-cut birds. 
The next drawing, Fig. 58, shows a foul feather between the fifth and seventh flights, and is 
another fault often found in the high-cut birds, but rarely or never in the low-cut ones, just as we 
before saw in the Tumblers ; the propensity to dark feather about the head coming out also in the 
wing, and the white flight with dark head being the difficulty. 
Having shown these three flights opened out for examination, it will be as well to see them 
closed also, which is done in Figs. 59, 60, 61, so that the young amateur may know where to look 
for the fault on the bird in the pen. First of all it will be seen that in even the perfect flight only 
eight white feathers appear. This is simply because a young bird tucks up his wing so tightly, that 
only eight, or even seven, will show, and hence plucking one or two may pass so long as the bird 
is not handled ; but opening out the wing will reveal the secret. But owing to this, two foul 
feathers only are not any great detriment to the appearance of a young bird, which tucks them up 
under the others, and we have seen even three feathers so hidden ; but when the pigeon has bred 
two or three seasons, the wing becomes more slack, and the fault is seen even in one feather. 
Still, eight or more good flights, with other properties well developed, make a Jack by no means to 
be despised, though we must not regard as a standard less than “ten and ten” as in the Bald- 
heads. In a case of actual competition, if a good bird had eight and nine a side, the remainder we 
would regard as probably the smallest fault the bird had, as probably scarcely appearing ; but the 
seventh flight being foul would count far more seriously, as scarcely any bird can conceal it. This 
is seen in Fig. 60, where the really eighth feather, but apparently tenth, appears as foul in the 
closed wing ; and we would again ask any fancier to look at such a wing, and again at a bird 
low-cut, and say if the wing is not by far the worst fault ? If they disagree on this point, let them 
further try which fault is the hardest to breed out, and they will soon come round to our opinion. 
Finally, in Fig. 61, we see closed the same wing as in Fig. 58, which is even more objectionable, 
as being more conspicuous than the other, but which, like it, is also found in the high-cut, dark- 
thighed, and best coloured birds. 
Another singular point is, that the foul-flighted, high-cut, dark-thighed birds are as a rule 
deficient in hood, mane, and chain. Hence to breed continually from them would be to risk the 
obliteration of the chief Jacobin points ; and much therefore as we ourselves admire the high-cut 
marking, we feel bound to caution all breeders against placing too much value on it, and especially 
from depreciating or discarding the very birds which are most necessary to correct the faults with 
which it is so accompanied. 
The tail of the Jacobin, like the flights, should be white, but this point will give little difficulty. 
There are also whole-coloured Jacobins, namely, birds which have flights and tail the same as 
the body. Some of these are very good Jacks, and the white bird in fact must be whole-coloured ; 
but the want of marking is undoubtedly a great want of finish to the bird, and makes it of far 
