Swallows and Falrles. 
35i 
SWALLOWS. 
“ This variety, by reason of their extreme beauty, conspicuous, bold, and well-defined 
markings, have become popular favourites amongst the Toys. There are nine sub-varieties, viz., 
Black , Red, Yellow, Blue (barred), Blue (barless), Blue-chequered , Silver (barred), Silver (barless), 
and Silver-chequered. The general formation and markings are as follows : — Beak, long ; nostrils, 
small ; forehead, high ; neck, short ; shoulders and back, broad; body, plump, and rather squat in 
shape; legs, short, and either merely ‘slippered ’ or ‘ long muffed.’ At the base of the skull, rising 
from the neck, is a wide-spread ridge of inverted feathers, which should form a nicely scalloped, 
clear-ridged, well-raised ‘ shell crown.’ The upper mandible dark, the lower portion white. The line 
of head-markings runs in direct course with opening of beak and through the eye, all the upper part 
of head being black or coloured, terminating in an accurate line at the base of skull or rise of 
‘ crown,’ which is white. The neck, breast, belly, thighs, hocks, vent-covering, tail, back, and 
‘ saddle’ also are white, leaving the wing in its entirety black or coloured ; the leg-feathering (from 
hocks) also coloured ; and the eye is dark, known as black, or ‘ bull-eye.’ In the Blacks, intense 
and glossy black is very desirable ; depth, richness, brilliancy, and uniformity in the Reds ; and 
purity, clearness, and uniformity in the Yellows. The Blue (barred) ones should be of a nice, clear, 
even-tinted colour, with two well-defined narrow bars across the coverts, the primary flights being 
blue-black, and also in the heavily leg-feathered ones the stiffer quills of feet are also blue-black. 
Plain barless Blues are as other Blues, simply omitting the bars. Blue-chequered should be nicely 
and evenly chequered with light-blue and jet-black, the best of such are then very pretty ; the 
three sorts of ‘ Silvers ’ are in point of markings just as the corresponding kinds of Blues ; the 
difference only being, in lieu of the blue there is a fine, delicate, whitey-grey, with blackish bars 
and chequering thereon. In both kinds of Blues, and also the Chequers, and the same with Silvers, 
the skull cap is of a much darker shade of colour. For my own part, I rather prefer the heavily leg_ 
feathered Swallows, with their coloured feathers protruding from profusely-feathered hocks, and 
spreading out like little wings on either side, for in such specimens the general effect is far more 
striking and peculiar. At the present time the medium-muffed birds are in the majority, but this 
arises, in the main, from the difficulty of adding to or even maintaining the extreme length which 
I remember years ago. The chief desideratum in Swallows is colour and markings — deep and 
glossy blacks, richness and purity of the coloured birds ; therefore, in breeding them there is not 
much scope. Blacks may be mated with Reds, and Reds with Yellows, and Blue (barless) to 
Blue (barred), and either of the latter to Blue-chequers or any of the Silvers. These occasional 
crosses are absolutely necessary, but need not be practised as a fixed rule of procedure. 
FAIRIES. 
“ These — sometimes termed Spot or Fairy Swallows — are of various colours, Black, Reds, 
Yellow, Blue, and Silver. In formation they are Swallows, but in markings differ. There are 
plain-headed and ‘crowned ’ birds, and their points may be briefly summed up thus : — White birds 
with black or coloured primary flights, black or coloured leg-feathers downwards from the hocks 
only, and with a well-defined, oval spot of same colour upon the forehead, extending from the 
nostrils to highest rise in forehead. The upper mandible dark, in harmony with the colour of the 
specimen, the lower white. The eye is dark hazel. Accuracy of markings, depth and richness of 
colour, are the points in these birds ; ten coloured primary flights, clear lined, central, frontal ‘ spot,’ 
length of coloured muffs, and without any intermixture of black above or white below the hocks. 
“ There are, I believe, a variety exactly similar to the above, with the additional feature of a 
