FANCIERS’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 


















TOY PIGEONS. 
AFTER the common pigeons the Toys, or birds noted for 
combinations of colors, were the earliest succeeding links in 
the chain of varieties of pigeons. In the development of 
art, color was the first thing of interest to the ancient say- 
ages, just as now it first attracts the child; this comparison 
is a just one, for the esthetics of the aborigines were no more 
developed than are those of a child of the nineteenth century. 
An ordinary amount of intelligence is pleased with coloring; 
it requires education to notice and appreciate special points, 
such as heads, beaks, crops, ete. Therefore, in the earlier 
days of mankind and pigeon fancying, coloring was the at- 
traction; certain pigeons were kept because of their being 
sports of different markings from their ancestors; thrown 
together they produced other sports, and so varieties of Toys 
were produced. 
Almost every boy whose opportunities are few to obtain 
varieties, grows (in a small way) threugh precisely the ex- 
perience of the whole human family, in its efforts to develop 
the varieties ; as the life of an individual is really the life of 
a nation, so is the life of a fancier really an epitome of the 
world’s pigeon fancying. Asin childhood he is pleased with 
a common, then a Baldhead common, until he can procure 
Toys, fancies, and at last high fancies. So the human family 
first kept their commons, then selected the sports, and find- 
ing from experience that two birds looking alike might 
produce their like, took pains to match such together and 
so developed colors or Toys, until some trait, as tumbling, 
accidental at first, or pouting, or increased wattle, turned 
their attention to, and produced more intricate differences. 
Each fancier grows through these eras, unless he starts late 
in life and founds himself on the books. 
Toys are, therefore, the first removes from the commons, 
and those parts of the pigeons that are easiest to change 
were undoubtedly the first distinguishing marks; white 
tails and flights, then white heads, wings, breasts, etc., at 
last the perfect white bird. After such markings were ad- 
mired for countless years, varieties became fixed, certain 
combinations of colors were looked upon as standards, and 
names were given to such. 
The names prove more conclusively than any other source 
of information, at what era certain varieties were acknowl- 
edged to be sufficiently fixed to be entitled to that distinc. 
tion. The name Nun, as applied to pigeons, shows that the 
variety was named because of a fancied resemblance to the 
head-dress of a religious devotee of the Catholic church ; 
therefore, we can set the variety down as having been de- 
veloped since the establishment of Catholicism; so of the 
Helmet, from Anglo Saxon derivation, not only proving 
the variety to have come into existence since the use of hel- 
mets in war, but also pointing out its birth-place. 
Most of the Toys can be traced in this manner to an era 
and a birthplace, and many changes have been noted in the 
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class, and in the different varieties of the class; not only has 
the class been increased by additional numbers, but the va- 
rieties have been subdivided into blacks, reds, yellows, 
blues, ete., until combinations of any kind can he obtained; 
or when not immediately obtainable, can be bred. The 
birds that rank as standard varieties are Suabians, Arch- 
angels, Hyacinths, Porcelains, Starlings, Nuns, Priests, 
Spots, Swallows, Magpies, Helmets, and Ice Pigeons. 
From this list a fancier can choose those he wishes to breed. 
As standards, or to cross for new specimens, none of them 
breed perfectly true, no matter which you take, there will 
always be some of the young that turn out foul; and nothing 
is a surer proof of their common ancestry, than that the foul 
young are of no more worth in appearance or value than so 
many commons. 
After Tumblers became known, that trait was engrafted 
upon the more ancient Toys, and not many years ago there 
were Magpied, Helmeted, and Nun*Tumblers; and these 
varieties can again be reproduced by matching proper speci- 
mens of the Tumblers and Toys together, selecting the well- 
marked tumbling young as nuclei for the strain. Any 
enterprising fancier can multiply the strains of Toys ad in- 
finitum, but it is not every Toy fancier that can handle 
successfully the fancies or high fancies, each of which defi- 
nition supposes a higher degree of excellence in the pigeons 
designated, and a greater knowledge on the part of the fancier 
admiring. 
The Toy fancy is but the entered apprentice degree; the 
fancy that of fellowcraft; and the high fancy ranks as the 
master degree. 
One may understand both the first and never rise to the 
dignity of the last; but one cannot know thoroughly the 
last without holding the first as a mere stepping-stone on the 
road to knowledge. 
There may be a few readers to whom it should be told, the 
Toys refer to pigeons whose sole value consists in one point, 
color, properly distributed upon a designated ground-color, 
which is generally white. The fancies refer to a large class 
having more than one point, such as Owls, Turbits, Fantails, 
ete.; and high fancy but three varieties, whose intricate 
points are numerous and difficult to obtain, viz.: Almonds, 
Carriers, and Pouters. One or two varieties, such as Barbs, 
might be entitled to # place in the latter class, but are not 
as yet so recognized. Dr. WiLBuR P. Morgan. 
BALTIMORE, MD. 

MOORE’S WORK ON PIGEONS. 
(Continued from page 637.) 
5. The last thing that is generally allowed as a property 
in a Pouter is the feather, and indeed its plumage affords a 
very great variety. 
The Pieds are most universally esteemed ; and under these 
may be ranked the Blue-pied, the Black-pied, the Red-pied, 
and the Yellow-pied, each of which advance in their worth 
according as they answer best the foregoing properties; for 
instance, if the Blue-pied and Black-pied are equal in the 
measure of the other properties, the Black-pied will be 
reckoned the best pigeon, on the account of the feather, and 
the Yellow-pied, if equal, better than any. 
Before we leave this head of feathers, we must take notice 
how «a Pouter ought to be pied; and, in the first place, the 
chop ought to be white, girt round with a shining green, 
intermixed with the color with which he is pied. By the 
chop is meant the front part of the crop, and this white 
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