THE DRAGON.
For grace, style, and beauty there are no pigeons superior to Dragons. They are almost everything a young fancier could desire—good homing birds, able to do 50 or 100 miles with ease; active on the wing, close sitters, good nurses, fertile breeders, requiring no special care; full-sized birds, good in a pie, and not expensive in first cost. Their general form is somewhat like that of the carrier, but they are much more active, and far quicker in flight. Some of the best dragons are blue; others are white, red, yellow, and black. They differ from the carrier in the size of the eye and beak-wattle, and in the beak.
THE TUMBLER.
The Tumblers are the very opposite of the breeds last described. Small birds, with rounded heads, short beaks, and pretty little red prancing feet, they are the very pets of the pigeon fancy. In colour the tumblers vary very much. There are blues, blacks, and other self colours; then some have white heads—these are termed bald heads; others have a white mark below the under bill—so they are termed beards; but the variety most valued is that termed the almond tumbler. In this breed every feather of the plumage is variegated with black, yellow, and white, the yellow forming the ground colour. These almond birds are reared by experienced fanciers with beaks so short that they are hardly able to bring up their own young, and others have to be employed for the purpose. Birds of this extreme character are not suited to young fanciers; but the ordinary flying tumblers, which can be bought at any dealer’s for a few shillings per pair, are most pleasant pets—good breeders, active and joyous on the wing, constantly turning somersaults in the air, good in a pie, and able to fly home, if trained, some thirty or forty miles with ease.
THE BARB.
The Barb, or, as it used formerly to be called, the Barbary pigeon, from the country from where it was originally obtained, is regarded with great esteem by fanciers, and very good specimens cannot be obtained except at high prices. In size the barb is rather a small bird. The colours are usually black, dun, red, yellow, or white; blue barbs, strange to say, are not known. The eye of the barb is surrounded by a naked skin or wattle of a red colour; this should be circular in form, and the larger it is the more the bird is valued: the skull should be broad, and the beak short and stout. Barbs are good sitters, and bring up their young ones very well. They are also striking in appearance, the red eye-wattle contrasting well with the colours of the plumage.
