FANCIERS’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 
441 
tried to feed the chick, they could not understand why it 
should run around and refuse the food offered in their usual 
manner. 
Some time ago, Mr. Herdegan, former manager for W. 
H. Churchman, informed us that during a late exhibition of 
the Penna. Poultry Society, a pair of pouters were calling 
to nest, and to play a joke upon the owner, he got a Ban- 
tam’s egg and put it under the Pouters, but it had not re- 
mained there long, when a covetous fancier purloined the 
egg, took it home carefully and set it under pigeons, but 
great was his surprise when the young Bantam ran out of 
the nest and began to help itself. The joke was too good to 
keep, and had traveled further than was originally in- 
tended. — E d.] 
(For Fanciers’ Journal.) 
Jos. M. Wade, Esq. 
Dear Sir: Here is an item for the Fancier, which amus- 
ing as it may appear to some, was rather the opposite to me, 
and goes to show how much some people know about pigeons. 
1 have two pairs of very fine inside Tumblers, and about a 
week ago, while exhibiting them to a friend, in the yard, 
the best one getting frightened, succeeded in flying beyond 
my reach, and darkness coming on I lost him. I hunted 
everywhere for him, and at last gave him up as gone. Last 
night, however, a boy brought him to me, having heard of 
my inquiries about him. The boy told me that he caught 
him the day after I lost him, and let him fly in the wood- 
shed with some other pigeons he had. His mother saw it 
tumble two or three times, and supposing it to be in a fit, 
doused it in cold water. That stopped him for awhile, but 
when he got dry at it he went again, whenever he attempted 
to fly. The lady noticed it had “ fits ” only when flying up, 
so she out of pity clipped its wings, so that it could not fly 
at all. I have got my Tumbler but he has got over tumbling 
now. Yours, Lon. Hardman. 
St. Joseph, Mo., June 24, 1874. 
MOTTLES. 
There are numerous birds among the varieties of pigeons 
that are called Mottles, and yet not one in ten approaches 
the standard by which, alone, birds answering to that name 
should be judged. The Mottles of one person are the 
Splashes of another, or the Speckles of some other. So it 
turns out that B is dissatisfied with the birds C sends him 
or D thinks E does not know what a Mottle is because 
E rejects Splashes, etc. There need be no difficulty about 
all this, for it has long been settled as to what a Mottle 
should be. A Speckle is a spot of one color upon another. 
For instance, upon a sheet of paper you drop some ink ; it 
spots, or specks it, and if you shake out a number of drops 
the paper becomes speckled all over. And so it is with a 
class of pigeons; the color of the bird (black, red or yellow, 
etc.) is spotted all over with specks of white, whence comes 
the name of Speckles, or Speckled Tumblers, etc. 
A splash is a different thing. A boy will stand in the 
gutter, and splash mud over you as you walk by. In this 
instance a large quantity of mud falls upon one or two 
places (the little spots count for nothing here), and your 
white suit is said to be splashed. Therefore among birds, a 
black (red, blue, etc.) one with large spots of white occurring 
here and there on its plumage is called a splash ; thus two 
or three white feathers will give a bird a splashed tail, or 
when the white extends across the back it is a splashed back, 
as some call it a handkerchief back. 
A Mottle bears a definite meaning with it. It has not 
come by chance, such as a speck or splash ; on the contrary) 
it denotes that something has been carefully done. There is 
no sense in saying I am mottled with mud, splashed is the 
word for that ; but when you look at a work of art, you say 
how carefully that mottling is done. With birds a Mottle 
means a black (red, blue, yellow, etc.) bird with a rose consist- 
ing of about twenty-four (rather less than more) white feath- 
ers upon the shoulder of each wing. If these feathers are 
arranged in a perfect circle, with a black feather alternating 
between every two of the white ones, it gives a brilliancy 
and beauty to the bird that will set any fancier wild. Some 
fanciers allow a few white feathers scattered about the head 
and neck of the bird, but methinks it is because they cannot 
always attain the highest perfection in breeding Mottles, 
and are, therefore, inclined to be liberally lax in their ideas 
in order to accommodate the name to the speckled birds, 
and not the birds to the name. That is not true fancying ; 
it is but a make-believe, and is always accompanied by an 
unpleasant sensation of conscience that is very disagreeable 
to have about one when one’s ideas are formed to a high 
standard. Eaton in his edition of plates, gives a beautiful 
illustration of a Mottle, and the only objection to it is the 
speckling of the back and neck ; but then Eaton was not so 
strict in his ideas of the meaning of the word as he ought to 
have been, for he gives us also a plate of a Mottled Trumpe- 
ter, and by comparing the pictures it is conclusively shown 
he attached different degrees of latitude to the word as used 
in speaking of Mottled Tumblers or Speckled Trumpeters. 
What makes a mottled bird valuable is the purity of the 
mottling and the rareness with which such mottling is 
reached. It is easy to breed speckled birds; it is hard to 
breed birds mottled on the wings and moderately speckled 
about the head ; but hardest of all is it to breed that pure 
white mottling on the wings alone. It takes time, and the 
most careful selection, to produce anything of moment among 
pigeons, and the most experienced fanciers have not yet 
succeeded in fixing those few white feathers indelibly upon 
the shoulders of the birds, but the time will come when it 
will be done; meantime, do not let us be dragging down a 
high standard and prostituting our energies by resting 
content to call Splashes, Speckles, and even Griggles by the 
name of Mottles. 
Mottled Tumblers are exceedingly scarce, whether short 
or long faced. There is but one Short-faced nearly ap- 
proaching perfection in coloring, in the circle of our ac- 
quaintance. It is a beautiful black, in the possession of 
Mr. M , a fancier of refined taste and liberal ideas, 
residing in our city. It was considered cheap at fifty dol- 
lars, and is now unpriceable. The Long-faced are sometimes 
called Rose-winged, and are occasionally well bred, but in 
most instances they deserve the name of White-winged or 
Splashes, more truly than Rose-winged ; many of these last 
are fine tumbling-birds, and some of elegant beauty. Mot- 
tled Trumpeters are far from being fit exemplars of the word 
Mottle. It would be better to call them Speckled but for 
the fact that, yielding to the invisible influence of the word 
mottle, the fanciers are gradually excluding more and more 
of the white from the standard of markings for the Trum- 
peters, and the time is not far distant when the mottling of 
the perfect bird will be ruled by a standard for colors com- 
mon to both varieties. Dr. W. P. M., 
In “ Poultry Bulletin.” 
February, 1874. 
