359 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
THE NUN. 
This pigeon is undoubtedly of either German or Dutch origin ; and a glance is sufficient to 
show that the name by which it is known is singularly appropriate, the Black variety, which far 
outnumbers all the other colours put together, looking as if the head were covered by a black veil. 
The appearance of this colour in the variety is very attractive, the black and white being singularly 
well contrasted ; but we must add that in few varieties perhaps does the black appear so far 
superior to all other colours ; even the Red, which is next best, and which in the Magpie is a very 
handsome colour, appearing very poor by comparison in the Nun. 
The head of the Nun should be roundish, similar to that of a half-bred Short-faced Tumbler, 
or what is known as a pleasant-faced Tumbler, the beak resembling that of a Flying Tumbler, and 
showing as nearly as possible the same thickness in both mandibles. The majority of birds are 
more or less faulty in this respect, their beaks resembling that of the Magpie, which is more Dove- 
like in shape. The beak should be black in the Black birds, and flesh-coloured in the Reds and 
Yellows, the upper mandible of the Reds having a stain upon it of a darker colour than the 
lower ; and we have noticed that the deeper in colour the beak is, the richer and more lustrous 
is usually the black upon the body. The eye should be a clear pearl or white, and not, as is so 
often seen, a gravel eye, which is a decided fault, though not so much as to cause a bird good in 
other properties to be passed over, the principal properties lying not in the eye, but elsewhere. 
The cere or small wattle round the eye of the Nun is quite different to that of most other varieties 
of Toys ; for in nearly all these it is red, or if not, of flesh colour, whereas in the Black Nun it is 
nearly black, which gives the head a still darker appearance than the plumage alone would cause. 
In colour we will take for our standard the Black, which is far superior both in numbers and 
quality to all other colours. The head is black as far back as the hood or shell-crest, which 
stands up white. The black should come down well under the throat, where the dividing line 
between it and the white body-colour is called the bib-marking ; and the lower down the neck 
this appears the better is the marking, which should, of course, show a nice clear dividing line. It 
is in this part that what may be called the mildest cases of the trimming, so prevalent in Nuns, 
are found ; we say the mildest, because this part of the marking is not very difficult to produce, and 
there are plenty of birds to be found all that can be desired. When the bib-marking is good, or 
sufficiently low down, it indicates usually the presence of another property of still more value, viz., 
a proper number of black flights, which in a too high-cut bird are almost always deficient. 
To finish, however, with the head, we come next to the crest, a most difficult property to get 
in perfection, and which generally undergoes a most severe trimming, so that to see a crest of the 
proper size and shape is quite a novelty in a class of Nuns. It should form a complete crescent, 
extending nearly from the back of one eye to the back of the other, and shaped as if a semicircle 
of paper were bent or rolled round the back of the skull, with the round side uppermost. It ought 
to stand quite upright, by no means lying close, like the hood of a Jacobin or shell-crested Turbit ; 
