PIGEON NOTES.

Evening Star, Issue 14636, 4 August 1911, Page 5

PIGEON NOTES.

£By Th* AuTwsxr.j

Questions relating to pigeon-breeding. etc., requiring answer must be sent to '' Antwerp,'* care of this office, not later than noon of Thursday, in order to secure attention the same week. The Dunedin Show, which opened yesterday ( afternoon, proved that there are still some real good birds left in Otago and Southland. Mr W. B. M'Kenzie remarked that it was quite a pleasure to handle most of the exhibits, and that even although the show was held so late in the season, all the birds were shown in good condition. Full remarks on the show will be given in next week's Pigeon Notes. Several Southland pigeon fanciers were in town for the show. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr P. Lindsay, from Invereargill, who, along with his usual team of Black Balds, had some nice Black and Red Pigmy Pouters on view. Mr Gotrgh, also of Invercargill, brought with him some fine Red Self Tumblers and a nice Yellow Moths. Mr Peat, from Dipton, •came up with a team of several varieties, including Jacobins, Nuns, Croppers, and a nice Blue-laced Fantail. —'The Pouter.—

The Pouter is the most, familiar of all pigeons, which may be one cause for its general popularity." It is also a taking pigeon, and becomes very tame, and allows itself to be stroked and'handled. For the last few years its appearance at shows in New Zealand has been very poor, and I are pleased to see it beginning to "boom" ;'gain. It has had a very chequered career. At one time, when the Almond Tumbler becamo the fashionable pigeon for gentlemen to keep, the Pouter almost became extinct; in fact, if it had not been for a few of the prominent fanciers in Glasgow and around Ayrshire, we should not now have a Pouter worth looking at. They, however, kept to their old favorites, and still manage to annex most of the leading prizes at the principal shows. To show the place it occupies now in the fancier's estimation I may say that there were over 200 on exhibition at tire last Crystal Palace Show. Length of leg is the. most valuable property in a Pouter, and is one of the hardest to attain, but when got gives a truly majestic appearance to the bird. The length of the leg should be about Tin; in fact, it takes a leg of this length to carry the length of feather necessarv. which is about IBin. If he bo longer In feather than this ho cannot stand straight, and thus loses in carriage, and cannot move about with that elegance and freedom so necessary to show to advantage. The legs should be placed close together, narrow-thighed, and not wide and straddling. The knee-joint is wanted as high as possible, and not too much bent; neither should the leg b© too straight. The feet should turn out a little and the knees in. Next to legs comes j-lenderness of girth, which is a sure mark of a well-bred bird, and if good in this point tho close setting of the limbs is sure to follow. Crop comes next. Iji this particular many otherwise good birds often fail through showing very little of it, but some, again, overcharge it. which makes them lean right back on their tails, while others have a largo crop, which they never fill, but allow it to hang loose. This is very unsightly. The wellformed crop should be as globular as possible, running out with a graceful curve all round, but showing very little at the back of the neck. It ought, to be full and round, well raised in front, so that the bird's beak is partly hid in it. I<ength of feather is the next property. This has already been touched upon when speaking of limbs, so nothing more needs to be .*aid, as it is an easy property to attain, and largely depends on tho length of leg. Color and markings form the last property, thorgh not eo particular in this varietv as in come others; yet when got approaching perfection they improve the bird to a very iaige extent. Tho standard colors are bi.i.'k, blue, reel, and yellow pied,s, wails in off-colors we have mealies, chequers, silvers, whites, and sanciies. In marking, tho rose pinions are very hard to get, most buds having " bithepped" wings, which look ugly. The " bib"' is another tiang of beauty when got to perfection, but too often, unfortunately, we only have the "swallow" throat. Clean thighs, though 50 desirable, aio very hard to attain. The eye should be red or orange, but ■we too often find bull or black eyes. This is a minor fault, but stall it is always well to strive to ihe ideal, even though we !ind it unattainable. With regard to breeding, blacks should be rm-ted to blacks, blues with blues. Never mate blue with any other color s;:»"e blue or silver, or it will take years to breed it out. This not only applies to tho variety under review at present, but is applicable to all varieties. If. however, one could not s:et a blue or silver to rn:.to to, one should try yellow, bnt never black or red. Mr Jas. Montgomery, of Belfast, a recognised authority on Pouters, once said, in a paper ha read before one of the loading societies in London on this subject :

" inti-odiire bine into your reds and blacks, and I will give you 20 years to breed it out." With blacks, if an out-cross is really necessary, crofs with reds, breeding the black produce back again. To attain to the correct markings, match a ''gay'' bird to one rather sparse in markings, and vse care in not mating two birds with similar fault.--. .-New Standard of Points Drawn Up bv Pouter Club.— Point*. Head, small 2 "hy s, bull in white, orange in other .lors 2 Beak, black in blacks and blue, horn color in reds, flesh in yellows ... 2 Bib, sbow-n well below throat, about size of 5s piece 3 Crescent, clearly defined, stretching from below eye* across crop ... 5 Globe, round like orange, carried well up, showing slightly at back of neck .". 15 Neck, aa long as possible 3 Girth, as slender as possible 8 Waist, long and narrow, with wings well tacked up ... 8 Back, concave, square across shoulders 6 Legs, thighs corning away evenly from tody, legs as long as possible, especially from foot to hock, close as possible 20 Feet and leg feathering, feet and logs evenly covered 3 Flights and tail, in keeping with size of bird, flights meeting on top of tail, which is carried dear of ground 3 Color and marking 10 Carriage and style 10