Breeding Re dr, Whites, etc. 
255 
of each colour. The yellow thus bred is of course very good, but the red, as we have so often 
seen in other breeds, of course loses. On this account, unless the Yellow bird was really wanted to 
improve some other point, we would rather breed the Reds to themselves if we could find suitable 
matches. We would do the same with Yellows until the progeny began to come too pale; and 
to avoid this as long as possible, carefully avoid breeding together two young birds, which, as we 
have before remarked in this work, causes the yellow to become too pale much sooner than if the 
same birds were bred from when mature. Always therefore match a young bird to an old one ; 
and in the case of Reds, which improve more than any other colour with age, breed if possible two 
mature birds together, which will both produce better colour and also better heads and beaks. 
And when crossing is required, either Red or Yellow may be crossed with a rich Black, as before 
noted. 
Whites of course have not and cannot have the same attractive qualities as the other colours, 
and in fact in scarcely any variety has white any right to contend on an equality with other colours 
which present any difficulty in marking. Whites have originally, no doubt, “ sported ” from Reds 
and Yellows, and hence have often very fine Jacobin qualities, which make them attractive. No 
one has done so much for the improvement of White Jacobins as Mr. Van Haansbergen, of New- 
castle, some of whose specimens have left scarcely anything to desire ; and indeed we scarcely 
know of one good White at the time we write which does not owe its origin to this gentleman’s 
strain. It is a beautiful sight to see in one pen four good pairs, one of white, one black, one yellow, 
and one red ; when the white seems to set off all the others, and each borrows attraction from the 
rest. To show the vigorous constitution of the Jacobin, and how much may be done by judicious 
breeding, we may state that to the best of our belief all Mr. Van Haansbergen’s strain came from 
one pair claimed at a Glasgow show, and which we believe were the produce of some Reds. The 
great difficulty in breeding Whites is to keep up the hood, mane, and chain, with the pearl eye ; 
white Jacobins, like all other white pigeons, being so subject to bull-eyes. It is strange that if an 
otherwise white bird have even a few foul feathers on its body, it will often have nice pearl eyes ; 
but if really white, there is the difficulty, and very few indeed are the Whites with pearl eyes which 
do not owe a little to a “ sudden moult.” To improve Whites we should advise matching one pure 
white — no matter if bull-eyed — to a pale-coloured Yellow, and selecting the nearest to white for 
crossing back to the white parent. If another White can be got we would match it to another of 
the half-bred Whites, and keep on selecting till the produce was pure white. If again a clear red 
bird splashed on the body can be had, as it often can, we would gladly cross such too in with the 
Whites. It is in such ways the colour of eye is gained along with pure white body, and that hood, 
mane, and chain are kept up ; and when these points are once got with really white plumage, the 
result is a most beautiful and much-valued Jack. 
There are, as before said, whole-coloured Black Jacobins; but very few, if any, fancy them. 
Their breeding would give very little comparative difficulty. 
We have never seen a really good Blue Jacobin, and can give no advice as to breeding such, 
further than can be gathered from the preceding pages of this work. The difficulty is, that there 
seems nothing to start with, the only way of getting the colour being to cross with the Blue Bald- 
head, in which way we believe all the Blue Jacobins to have been produced. To improve the 
Blues can only be a work of time. 
It is often necessary to breed out faulty-coloured eyes in otherwise good-coloured birds. If 
the fault be a bull-eye, one cross with another good-coloured bird will often erase it ; and, if not, 
re-crossing certainly will. The colour which gives most trouble to get rid of is the orange-eye. 
Should it be a Red with this fault, breed it to a Black or Yellow, but not to another Red, which 
