360 
The Illustrated Book of Pigeons. 
the best crests being those which stand up the highest, and are most regular in shape. This is 
seldom seen, for the following reason : the crest should be white not only behind, but also in front, 
where it comes against the black head. Foul feathers are, however, very apt to appear in the 
front of the crest, and these being removed by trimming, and the root of the crest thus deprived of 
proper support, it lies down much too close ; for which very reason, in fact, as already seen, 
feathers are often plucked from the Jacobin, in which the hood is wanted to lie close. Compara- 
tively few Nuns but are much weeded in front of the crest ; and this evil tends to perpetuate 
itself, for it is found by experience that there is really no great difficulty in breeding for any 
marking, when the feathers desired project at all from the body, provided the stock upon which 
operations are based is genuine, so that each step of progress can be distinctly marked, and indi- 
viduals matched accordingly. But trimming acts injuriously in two ways : in the first place, 
by allowing the breeder to win with a more or less faulty bird, it makes him content with a lower 
standard ; and secondly, by its delusive perfection, although he really knows what has been done 
it deceives his eye, and leads him to match up birds he would not pair if in their natural state. 
Leaving the head, the next property of the Nun lies in the flights; all the body, excepting 
head, flights, and tail being pure white. In regard to this property we differ from many fanciers, 
who are satisfied with too small a number. We hold that, as in all other cases, a perfect specimen 
should have the full complement of ten coloured flights in each wing, and that less than eight is 
decidedly faulty. We have heard of birds being called good which only had six-and-six, and 
this is laid down as a sufficient standard by old Moore ; but still we cannot see why we may not 
advance upon the old notions, and we would as willingly accept six-and-six in a Baldhead as in a 
Nun. The getting a sufficient number in each flight is the great difficulty. Of five-and-five or 
six-and-six there are plenty ; but when we come to more than that it will be found there are very 
few alike on each side, and also that many show foul feathers between the inner and outer flights, 
precisely (only that the colours are reversed) as we have shown in the illustration at page 251, of 
the flights of a Jacobin, which, in fact, allowing for the reversal of the colours, represents 
accurately the perfect and defective wing of a Nun. As in other cases where marking is the chief 
property, there is a class of people who will not only weed a faulty crest, but pluck out faulty 
flights, so as to make both wings appear alike. The fraud cannot be discovered unless the bird be 
handled, except, indeed, so many flights be abstracted that the fewness can be seen ; and many a 
time we have heard judges blamed in no measured terms for passing birds which exhibited 
no obvious fault in the pen, when we happened to know they had been disqualified for being 
plucked in the flights. No judge has, in fact, any excuse for passing a fraud of this character, as it 
can always be discovered by counting ; whereas in other feather-trimming, unless done to a really 
barefaced extent, it is not always easy to be sure about it. Although, however, we want if possible 
ten-and-ten, we would be well satisfied with nine-and-nine ; but we think it a great fault to be 
unequal, unless, perhaps, it be cight-and-ten, or still better, nine-and-ten, or perhaps eight-and-nine. 
In these higher numbers the fault is not seen until handled; but in six-and-eight, for instance, 
the deficiency can be readily seen on the faulty side even in the pen ; and as we have throughout 
done, we consider such a blemish far worse than any which can only be seen on examination. We 
would, therefore, be satisfied if a bird had at least seven on one side, though it had eight, nine, or 
ten on the other ; but, of course, the nearer the better, either for show or the breeding-pen. For 
in markings particularly the great law of breeding holds good, and if breeders will only content 
themselves with getting one property at a time they will attain success ; and it is simply the 
impatience of English breeders which gives them so much less success than the Germans in 
obtaining accuracy of feather-markings. They seem to wish for perfect specimens from th q first 
