





















Pigeon eee 
(For Fanciers’ Journal.) 
NUNS. 
Tue Nun is a very interesting member of the Toy family, 
and a flight of first-class birds is a beautiful sight, especially 
when they have been taught to 
fly high and to keep much upon 
the wing. 

The dark color tip- 
ping the four extremities (wings, 
tail, and head) of the white 
body presents a pleasing con- 
trast as we look upwards at the 
flight as it sails over us. And 
not alone as birds of flight are 
they of interest; upon a well- 
kept lawn or fancy stable-eaves 
they are attractive. The variety 
should be kept by itself. It does 
not mix well with the other varieties, and any cross from it 
is useless unless the manipulator has distinct projects in his 
mind as to the wherefore of his cross. An amateur can 
breed Nuns with great success, as the variety is one of the 
oldest and best established, and when the stock is truly bred 
and cared for there is little to be done except culling out 
the foul-marked young ones. 
The culling out can be done by any one who has an eye 
for colors and a knowledge of the markings of the Nun. 
The culling out, it must be remembered, does not refer to 
the plucking out of foul feathgrs, but to the selection and 
killing of all young birds whose coloring is not as perfect as 
it ought to be. Many amusing anecdotes might be rehearsed 
of the culling of fouls from the Toys, and few fanciers but 
know very thoroughly the meaning of the word; in fact, it 
is astonishing with what a keen sense of the finer meaning 
of words a fancier looks at a bird that is liable to foul 
feathers. He is always a little suspicious, even of the most 
honest dealer; and many a careful breeder has to bear for a 
time the onus of the treachery of unscrupulous imposters. J 
have been cheated so often that | never now ask a man if 
his birds are clean. What is the use of causing a man to 
lie as well as cheat? In these last sentences I am not 
striking at any particular person or class of persons; but a 
foul feather is such an eyesore, and so many birds are im- 
proved by the extraction of it, and so few people can tell 
when it is out, that the temptation to draw a little hard on 
it is as much as a conscientious man can withstand. He 
will pick up his bird, and would willingly give a dollar if 
the foul was not there. By and by he begins to finger that 
feather, and then he would give two dollars if it was not 
there. Now is the time for him to let that bird go if he 
wishes to remain easy in mind, but he cannot, and presently 
“the feather drops out, and the bird drops to the floor as clean 
as a pin. But, how about that man’s conscience? Why 
the first time his friend praises that bird the guilty indi- 


FANCIERS’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 
vidual would give five dollars if that foul feather were back 
in its place. The bird has become an upbraiding object to 
him, and the foul has been transplanted from the bird to 
that man’s honor, and it sticks there and rankles until the 
feather grows again, and experience teaches him that a foul- 
marked bird can be better borne than foul-marked honor. 
Nearly twenty years ago (by the way, I used that expres- 
sion once before, and it got me the name of ‘an old bach- 
elor,”’* which is not so, as I am a young one) I gave to a- 
friend a pair of Nuns, and after giving, was obliged to build 
a place for them, which we did, on the lawn, in front of the 
house. It was in a Southern State, where the cold of winter 
seldom affected the birds, and our house was all out-doors— 
that is, in the centre of the circular plot formed by the car- 
riage-drive. We set a post ten feet high; three feet and a 
half from the ground was a circular platform, and near the 
top of the post was a fancy roof. The boxes were built 
around the post, and a lattice-work of wire imprisoned the 
birds until such times as the fair owner allowed them lib- 
erty. There they lived for years, and their family increas- 
ing, was kept in the purest order and fineness by the regular 
selection of the fittest subjects. 
The selection of the best birds can be accomplished by 
any one, for Nuns are small white birds, with black, blue, 
yellow, or red heads, tails, and tips of wings. For instance: 
Take a white, hooded bird in your hand, and color its head 
with black as far back as the lower inside edge of the hood, 
and continue the coloring from the corners of the hood to 
a point on the front of the neck, about an inch and a half 










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below the insertion of the beak, so as to have the IA sk 
of a bib; then color the tail back of a line passing across the 
vent and encircling the posterior part of the rump, and the 
iil 
primary flight (the ten outer) feathers of each wing, and 
you have the coloring of the Nun. The beak is black, as 
are the beaks of all black-headed pigeons ; eyes, pearl; hocd, 
large and evenly turned, the inside perfectly white in fine ; 
birds; the legs bare and red; toe-nails in standard birds 
black. 
In judging Nuns, I have always thought of the following 
points: : ; 
1. Coloring, a pure white with deep black, the lines of 
division distinctly drawn, and no foul feathers of either color 
appearing. 
2. Hyes, pearl. . 
3. Hood well shaped, and clean on the inside. 
4, Feet, clean red, with black toe-nails. 
5. Colors, black, blue, red, yellow, and dun. 
The last color I should like to see done away with, as it 
stands in the way of purity of tone in the yellow. A flight 
of Nuns of the four colors is a good problem for a fancier; 
