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Show 198 DOl\'lESTIC PIGEONS. CHAP. VI. as tho year lGOO. I crossed a rna .1.o nun Wl' th a fe. male •r od common tumbler, which latter varJCty generally bl eds tmo. Thus neither parent had a trace of blue in ~be plumage, or of uar.· 011 tho win()' and tail. I ·hould prom1s that commo~ tumblers arc rar 1; blue in England. From tho above cross I rear d several young: one was rod over the .whole back, but with tlte tail as blue as that of tho rocl<-pJgoon; tho terminal lKtr, however, was absent, but tho outer £ at hers wore ctlgc<l wiLh white: <t second and third not~r1y roscm bl d the :fi~·st, but the tail in both presented a trace of tho bar at tho end. a fourth was browJLish, au<l the wings show d a trace of tho double bar: a :fifth was palo blue over th whole breast, back, cr~up, aml tail, bnt tho neck and primary wing-foath rs wore redd Jsh.; tho wingf:l pre ' utod two distinct bars or a rod colour.; th ~all wa.' not bmTe(l, but tho outer feathers were edged w1th wlutc. I crossed this last curiously colourcJ birJ with a black mongrel of compl.icatc1l <lef:lccnt, namely, from a bhwk barb, a spot, and almond tumbler, so that tho two young birds produced from thif:l cro3s ineluJ d tho blood of fi.v vari ti s, none of which had a. trace of blu or of wing and tail bars : one of tho twq young bird was brownish-black, with black wing-bars ; tho other. was r ddish-<lnn, with r 'Udi .·h wing-barf:l, 1)al r than tho rc t of tho body, with tho croup palo blue, tho tail bluish, with a trace of tho terminal bar. Mr. Eaton27 matched two , hort-faced tumblers, namely, a splash cock an<l kite hen (noith r of which arc blue or bttrrod), and from tho first nest h got a perfect blue hircl, and from tho · cond a silver or palo blue Linl, Loth of which, in accordance with all aualogy, no doubt presented tho usual characteristic marks. 1 crossed two malo black barbs with two female rod spots. Tho ·e latter have tho whole body and winn·s white, with a spot on tho forehead, tho tail and tail-coverts rod ; the race existed at 1 a.'t as long ago af:l 1676, and now bro ds pcrfecLly true, as was known to be tho case in the yea~: 1735.28 Barbs are uniformly- colour d birdR, with rarely oven a trace of bars on the wing or tail ; they arc lmown to brood very true. Tho mongrels thus raised were black or nearly black, or Jark or pale brown, 27 'TrcaLiso on Pigeons,' 1858, p. 28 J. Moore's 'Columbarium,' 1735, 14:5. in J. M. :Eaton's c<.lilion, 1852, p. 71. CHAP. VI. TIIEIR REVERSION IN COLOUR. 199 sometimes slightly piebald with white: of these birds no loss than six presented douule wing-bars; in two the bar. wore conspicuous and quite black; ins von some white feathers appeared on tho croup; ancl in two or throe there was a trace of the terminal bar to the tail, Lut in none were the outer tail-feathers edged with white. I crossed black barbs (of two excellent strains) with purelybred, snow-white fantails. Tho mongrels were generally quito black, with a few of tho primary wing and tail-feathers white: others were dark reddish-brown, and others snow-white: none had a trace of wing-bars or of tho white croup. I then paired together two of these mongrels, namely, a brown and black bird, and theu· off~pring displayed wing-bars, faint, but of a darker brown than the rest of body. In a second brood from the same parents a brown binl was produced, with several white feathers confined to the croup. I crossed a male dun dragon belonging to a family which bad been dun-coloured without wing-bars during several generations, with a uniform reel barb (bred from two Llack barbs); and the o[spring presented decided but faint traces of wing-bars. I cros~ed a uniform red malo runt with a white trumpeter; and the offi'pring bad a slaty-blue tail, with a bar at the end, and with the outer feathers edged with white. I also crossed a female black ancl white choquored trumpeter (of a different strain from the last) with a male almond-tumbler, neither of which exhibited a trace of blue, or of the white croup, or of the bar at encl of tail : nor is it probable that the progenitors of these two birds had for many generations exhibited any of these characters, for I have never even heard of a blue trumpeter in this country, and my almond-tumbler was purely bred; yet the tail of this mongrel was bluish, with a broad black bar at the e~d, and the croup was perfectly white. It may be observed in several of these cases, that the tail :first shows a tendency to become by reversion blue ; and this fact of the persistency of colour in the tail and tail-coverts 29 will surprise no one who has attended to the cro sing of pigeons. 29 I could give numerous examples; two will sulticc. A mongrel, whose four grandparents were a white turbit, white trumpeter, white fantail, and blue pouter, was white all over, except a very few feather~:~ about the head and on the |