The Illustrated Book of Plgeons. 
260 
which possess, as they do, other properties of flying, yet of a different order, the happy combina- 
tion of desired flying qualifications is perfected. It is supposed by many fanciers that the Barb, 
also, has been infused into the Antwerp and become part of its composition — in some cases it may 
have been — but it is a mistake to suppose that the Antwerp has been improved by any such 
injudicious cross. There is a strong resemblance in the formation of head between the two, and 
that it has been so crossed by a few fanciers who conceived the idea I am fully aware ; but certain 
disappointment is the result, and the cross is betrayed at once, and its evil consequences apparent 
in every generation. If the reader compares minutely the points of each sort, they will be found 
to differ very considerably. Young Antwerps will often show up a reddish cere and a white eye, 
and this, no doubt, has led to the idea of a Barb cross, when in reality there is not the slightest 
affinity between the two ; and when we consider that there are at least eight or ten varieties 
wherein there is a tendency to a red lash, we may infer that it is not at all remarkable that there 
should be an occasional red-lashed Antwerp amongst our young stock. Antwerps, also, occa- 
sionally throw a Black ; but these, although being black-feathered, bear no more resemblance to a 
Barb than any other colour, and rarely, if ever, show a red eyelash. I generally keep a Black in 
my stud simply because they cross well with Blues, and tend to preserve the uniformity of colour 
upon back and thigh. The commonly-known, yet extraordinary, ‘ Voyageur,’ then, is the produce 
of the complete admixture of the different sub-varieties of the three kinds named ; and, as may be 
well imagined from the fact of systematically crossing the long-beaked birds with the short- 
billed ones, the medium character (as in the typical bird) becomes stamped and fixed as a style. 
Well, then, it is from numerous large studs of such medium-faced big-headed Antwerps, such as 
may be found in Belgium and France, that the Short-faced show-bird (the subject of these notes) 
has been propagated and so improved of late years, until the distinctive features of the ideal have 
now become permanently impressed in the real object to as certain a degree as in most of our British 
pigeons. 
“ My chief object in digressing so far from the main subject is to show the origin and 
capabilities of the parent stock from which the more handsome show-bird has been produced. 
Nor is the especially-keen instinctive homing faculty of the original entirely lost or eradicated 
from the more perfectly formed and handsome offspring. Certainly not ; though it must be 
admitted that from the fact of continually breeding to one ideal of form from certain selected 
birds which reveal one type of merit, at least some, and in most of the best birds, much 
of the vigour, pluck, and knowledge, or instinct, of the race must be — in fact is — lost in the 
produce of the pretty and more attractive offshoot. I have on several occasions subjected some 
of my Short-faced prize (Exhibition) birds to moderate trials, and although but short distances, 
I have found them, as a rule, return remarkably well ; but as the Short-faced birds have reached 
so high a value for show purposes, one does not care to run the same risk as with ordinary birds, 
and for this reason I never cared to trust my show-birds to a greater distance than twenty to 
twenty-five miles from home. That they will fly and can sustain a good journey I am sure, 
provided that they are subjected to the same regular ordeal of practice which is imposed upon 
their Long-faced and more common allies ; but if confined within limited space, or even when 
permitted to enjoy a quiet, undisturbed, lazy freedom upon the house-tops, amongst the chimney- 
pots, the faculty becomes dull and dormant, and the specimens thereby rendered useless as homers. 
“ I remember sending one of my best birds off by rail to be tossed a distance of twenty-one 
miles from home ; this I did for a mere risky trial-experiment ; and although the wind was blowing 
a gale at the time, and against him, and notwithstanding the fact that lie had not been previously 
taken any distance from home, he returned in about two and a half hours. I simply mention this 
