PIGEON NOTES.

Evening Star, Issue 14529, 3 December 1910, Page 9

PIGEON NOTES.

[By Tint Antwerp.] Questions relating to ; pigeon-breeding , etc., requiring answA must be sent to Antwerp,” care oj this office , not later than noon of Thursday, in order to secure attention the same week. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. “ N.M."—Yeung pigeons, as a general rule, can feel themselves when six weeks old. It is very easily detected when a pigeon has a cold. Make a hopper to feed your birds from. It is always advisable to so feed pigeons to prevent the food from becoming contaminated. Put a bath in for your pigeons to bath themselves. It should bo about 4in deop. I posted you a paper, which you will find very instructive. 1 would strongly advise you to become a subscriber. I shaD have a few lines on tho Working Homers, shows and showing. This is a point upon which a groat diversity of opinion exists, and I am afraid will continue to exist until such time as there is i hard-and-fast rule made respecting the axact lines upon which shows arc going to be run. So long as there is an indiscriminate mixing of the two classes of distinct fanciers owning mid showing two distinct classes, or if you like types, of birds, so long will the diversity exist, and it cannot logically bo otherwise. I havo noticed many times that fanciers of any particular variety are almost always anxious that in tho case of forming classes they should have a special class or classes for their own variety, aud in many cases will endeavor to havo classes divided and subdivided to meet the requirements of their particular variety, holding (and I think quite rightly so) that certain colors or markings give to a bird undue advauSe, and that a black, or a blue, or a , just as the case may he, has an advantage. or, if you like, is at a disadvantage. What, then, shall wo say for a competition in which a bird bred for competition only in the show pea is pitted against a bird bred for hard work, and has to face the music during the racing season 2 In the first place, it is a generally-admitted fact that condition plays a most important part in showing, and quite justly so. Unless you have condition you cannot have racing ability. Mow, I shall at once say that there are two sorts or forms of condition, and it is a much-vexed question as to what constitutes real condition in a racer. Be that as it may, to those who have officiated as judge there are two distinct and well-defined forms of condition for the show pen—two forms which are quite well known to those who have handled hundreds of birds—that is, provided they have done their work properly. The one condition is that of sleekness and plumpness; tho other condition that of balance ami muscularity. Tho one is nice to the hand of the trne fancier only; tho other is nice to the racing man. A racer, to ho in condition, handies like what it is, an athlete; your fingers fairly ripple .over it, and the shorlder butts are hard and tense, and not at all “beautifully rounded off.” Hardness, you say “hard as nails,” car. be got every bit of it with the food and water, but muscularity can only be got by woiking the muscles, and will never be with tho bird which has never seen a racing hamper. If during the off season you wish to do a little showing, by all means do so. I am convinced that if shows served co other purpose than that of bringing fanciers together they would justify their existence. But they ’do more than that: they create an interest in our .-port, which is always a helpful feature. Fanciers have only themselves to Manio for the unsatisfactory state oi affair.-; at the present time. If the exhibitois insisted upon having their birds judged on their merits and to the standards laid down by me many clubs now in existence, judged by meu who are thoroughly acquainted and in sympathy with tho wishes of the exhibitors, and on the other hand racing men insisted upon having their birds judged by it radog man who know the fundamental requirements of racers and who honestly judged them as ho knew them, wo should then havo a far better state of affaire than prevail at tho present time. When the two varieties meet and are called upon to compete together, one or the other is bound to be left out, hence the present (aree of showing workers. There is not much trouble when we come to a show providing what are known us flown classes; hut there is always the good old evergreen “ likeliest fiyer,” and I venture tho opinion that it is there w'herc the hono of contention crops up so frequently. Wo are often told that it is all nonsense, this judging of racers, when there is no standard by which to judge them. Ido not sec whore this argument holds good at all. A judge is only called upon to select the likeliest bird tor a certain purposi. and a man is m.l, lit- to accept a judging emragement unless he knows what to look for as his ideal of a racer. True is tho saving: “Handsome is as handsome does." Although ono bird iiurv bo as good an another in tho next pen, and vet not at all a.s handsome or as finely proportioned, you muse admit that the handsome, well-balanced, jaunty bird is “the likeliest.” You attend an athletic 'lathering. You see the contestants too the mark, .and you notice tho fine, .-upplebodied man, well knit, clean of limb; he toes Urn mark with every confidence of being fit. Now nolo tho riiau who ambles to his mark, round-shouldered, nut at all a smart man. But they can both run, and rim well. They run a. dead heat, yet all tho time you have fancied tin* clean-built man ; in other words, lie was the. “ likeliest.”—(Continued next we-.-k.) A homer liberated at Stafford on July 25 alighted oil tho liner Laurentic coon after it had got out to sea on its outward passage, and tho bird was taken to Montrea 1 , returning to Liverpool with the vessel. It was liberated, and returned to its owner s loft, who was a bit thunderstruck when he learnt of tho bird’s travels.