Left: red white-barred, red spangled crested fairy swallows.
Right: yellow checker, red checker (Reisserflugels) plain headed wing pigeons
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FOR SWALLOWS AND WING PIGEONS (FULLHEAD, SILESIAN, AND FAIRY SWALLOWS |
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Homeland:
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Saxony, Erz Mountains, Lausitz, Silesia and Bohemia |
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Appearance:
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Strong, full body, medium to low standing, field pigeon type, heavily muffed, shell crested or smooth headed. All parts must be in balance. (See Illustrations 1, 2, 3,4) |
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Head:
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Longish, curved, with forehead reasonably high, smooth headed or crested. Wider at the back of the skull for those birds with shell crest. Size of the head must be in proportion to the size of the body. In crested birds, the shell is round, thick and ending on both sides in well defined rosettes. (See Illustrations 4, 7, 8, 9) |
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Eyes:
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Dark (bull), eye cere small, with skin color flesh color to red, fine in texture. |
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Beak:
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Moderately long. Beak markings on reds and yellows are flesh color, on blacks the upper beak is black, on blue the beak is blue-black to black, on silver the beak is light horn colored (found mostly toward the front of the beak), lower beak flesh color for all feather colors. (See Illustration 10) |
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Neck:
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Medium in length, full where the neck joins the body, with the throat well cut out (No gullet). (See Illustrations 1, 2, 3, 4) |
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Breast:
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Broad, full underneath, well rounded in appearance from the front, somewhat protruding and covering the wing butts. (See Illustrations 1, 2, 3, 4) |
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Back:
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Long, broad at the shoulders tapering to the tail and slightly sloping (Approximately a 15 degree slope). (See Illustration 6) |
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Wings:
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Powerful, wide feathered and not crossing at the tail. Held tight to the body. Secondary feathers should touch over the rump (closed back). (See Illustrations 4, 6 |
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Tail:
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Moderately long, well closed (approximately 1 1/2 feather width) and not touching the floor. (See Illustrations 4, 6 |
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Legs and feet:
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Low posture, long and thickly muffed feet with three layers of feathers laying flat, having a sickle shaped curve blending into the hock feathers. Shape of foot feather is more important than length. (See Illustrations 4, 5) |
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Feathers:
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Firm, smooth and dense feathering. |
Color Patterns
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Black, red, yellow, blue, silver, all without bars, with white bars, or spangled; blue with black bars, silver with dark dun bars, blue and silver checkered. Ash red and cream with or without dark bars. The feather color in blue, silver, ash red and cream, light in color, clear and even; in black, red and yellow, rich, intense color with good sheen, clear and even. Markings The Spot Marking on the wing pigeon (Silesian and Fairy) should be symmetrical, pear shaped and ideally reach its highest point on the top of the head at a point between the center of the eyes. The color of the spot should not extend to the eye cere. The spot should be narrower at the base and should not extend to the corner of the mouth. (See Illustration 10) The Cap Marking on the Swallow (Fullhead) should cover the top of the head starting between the upper and lower mandible and extend in a straight line to the lower part of the eyes, then continuing in a straight line to the rosettes at the ends of the crest (note that this does not say that the cap marking runs in a straight line from the beak to the rosettes). The cap marking should extend to the crest, but not into the crest. (See Illustration7) White barred Swallows in blue and silver must have a clear, distinct narrow dark edging. (See Illustration 11) Spangles and checkers, ground color on wing shield to be approximately one to one ratio with the spangling or checking. The spangle or checker is to appear as distinct triangles with an even distribution over the wingshield. The blue and silver spangles are to have a narrow, dark edge between the spangle marking and the ground color. The barring on spangles and checks is jagged, rather than even and wider than the barred varieties. Blue, silver, red and yellow spangles are to have clear colored flights and muffs (no evidence of grizzling should appear when the wings are closed). Black spangles must have finch markings (white spots) on the tips of each primary flight. White spots are not to touch each other. Young birds are not to be penalized if not completely finch marked. A little white in muffs is acceptable if the spangling is good. A little dark color in the muffs is acceptable if the color of the checking is good. (See Illustration 12) Bohemian/Tiger Swallows: The Tiger Swallow is a Spot Swallow, either crested or non crested, with alternating colored and white feathers in the wings and muffs. Every other feather in the primaries, secondaries, coverts and muffs must be white with the exception of the first two outer primary flight feathers, which must be colored. There should be an alternating pattern of white and colored feathers on the wing. The Tiger Swallow colors are black, red, yellow, silver and blue. (See illustration 13). Reisserflugel: Reisserflugels are red and cream checks. The checkers are to be very large, with a small light colored tip (T-Pattern). The checkers are to be intense in color. Some color is permitted on the inner portion of the flights, but the flights are to appear light in color when the wing is closed. The muffs are to be light, but not white. The upper mandible is to be dark on reds and cream on yellows. (See illustration 13)
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Head and Neck:
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Lack of rosettes, stained lower beak, lack of color on upper beak of black, blue or silver, broken or cracked eyes, beetle brow, stained eye cere, gullet, color of cap in Fullhead not reaching crest, base of spot extending to the mouth in spot swallow, color of spot extending to eye. (See Illustrations 7, 8, 9, 10) |
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Body, Wings, and Tail:
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Weak body, body too long, body too short, wing butts not well covered, side boards, too broad or broken bars, bar touching at top of wing, laced pattern in spangles, wing tips carried below tail, less than twelve (12) tail feathers, soft or loose feathering, roached back. (See Illustrations 4, 6) |
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Legs, Feet, and Muffs:
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Weak feathered muffs, split muffs, grizzled foot feathers, station too low or too high. (See Illustration 5) |
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Head and Neck:
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Too narrow or low set capping crest, flat head, poorly shaped spot, spot too large or small, streaked upper beak in blacks and blues, stain on beak of red or yellow, beak too short or long, neck too thick or thin. (See Illustrations 8, 9, 10) |
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Body, Wings, and Tail:
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Out of condition, wide or flared tail, visible evidence of third bar, dull or unclear color, bronzing or peppering in the bars and spangles, bronzing in dark bars or checkers, grizzling in flights of bar or barless, lack of finch marks in black spangles, wing tips crossing, chest weak or narrow, heart too small, heart too short, open back, rag feather. (See illustration 4, 6) |
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Legs, Feet, and Muffs:
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Split between muffs and hocks, poorly
formed muffs - lack of sickle, white spots in muffs of spangles, muffs
not lying flat, muff color does not match color of wing shield.
(See Illustration 5) |
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Provided are two fault categories. The major fault category is one that allows very little leeway. They are faults which should be eliminated completely from the Swallow and Wing Pigeon Races (Fullhead, Silesian and Fairy). The faults by degree category is provided because these problems may or may not detract from a quality overall impression of an exhibit. It is the judges discretion, depending of the severity of the fault, as to the degree of penalty assessed. Disqualifications Any outward physical deformity (i.e. crooked beak, crippled legs, drooping wings, etc.), over trimmed (trimmed to where the skin shows) or obvious faking. Obvious cross breeding. Order of Evaluation Overall impression, body/type including muffs, color, markings, wing pattern, crest, beak and eye color.
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