The Barb should be smooth headed and clean legged.
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SIZE: There is a certain difference of opinion regarding this, some liking a small bird and others a larger one. I think when the head properties in the two birds are equal in proportion to their respective sizes, the larger bird is to be preferred as being bolder in all its points.
SHAPE: The neck short and thin the breast very broad, the legs short, and the flights rather long and carried neither high nor low, but lying on each side of the tail, as I think, the correct style for the pigeons, and it is thus described by continental writers. Any gullet, or fullness of throat takes from the wished-for appearance of a massive head set on a thin stem, which most, though not all, look for in a Barb.
SKULL: This should be very broad, and is consequently rather flat, and generally with a fullness at the back. It should be as much as possible of equal breadth, not wedge-shaped. The forehead should be very broad, prominent, and well filled out, and form a curve from the crown to the beak wattle, a straight lined forehead in profile being a bad fault very often seen. The forehead must be well ribbed up with an indented line on each side of it as if carved out, which gives the pigeon a very nice modelled appearance in head, not so marked in any other variety, though seen in a less degree in the Owl tribe and ancient German pigeons.
BEAK: Very short, thick, well boxed, and wide in the gape; the upper mandible in the same curve as the forehead, and the under mandible approaching the upper in massiveness as much as possible, which is hard to get, but which when right, gives the bird a grand appearance. The beak should be flesh colored, or no more than tipped with color.
EYE: As pure white or pearl colored as possible, though the nearest approach to this is usually a white iris, rather red at its outer edge. Many good Barbs have yellow irises, which ought not to disqualify, but be duly allowed for in competition. White Barbs have been seen with pearl eyes but they generally have bull or hazel eyes.
BEAK WATTLE: At maturity, the beak wattle ought to have filled up all inequality in the curve of the forehead and upper mandible, and it may stand out a little in addition, but it ought to be as free as possible from rough wartiness, and show a clean division in the middle, appearing like a small bean split open and laid across the beak. The Jew wattle on the under mandible should not be excessive, but of course, grows to a certain extent in such a pigeon as the Barb. It should appear as three small warts, one in the middle of the lower mandible where the feathers finish off, and the others on each side below the opening of the mouth. The beak wattle in a healthy bird is nearly white, the Jew wattle and corners of the mouth being of a reddish flesh color.
EYE CERE: This is one of the chief properties of the Barb. It continues growing until the bird is from three to four years of age, when it ought to be at its best. It should be of equal breadth, all round consistent with roundness, the larger in diameter the better. It should be thickest at its outer edge and of a concave form, or shaped like the outside of a cartwheel, the eye being represented by the nave which stands out in the center. The more prominent, or less sunken in the head the eye is, the better. The color of the eye wattle ought to be bright red; with age, it often becomes light, sometimes turning almost white. The hen is generally less developed in head properties than the cock, though hens have been seen good enough to be taken for cocks, when exhibited. Before a hen can reach such qualities, she is generally past breeding. Looked at in front, the Barb’s head ought to be very square and blunt, the tops of the eye wattles reaching higher than the skull and standing away from it. When they incline towards each other by rolling over the skull, the head appears contracted, which is opposite of what is wanted.
COLOR: The Barb is a self colored pigeon, and is found in black, red, yellow, dun, and white. Blue is rare, but occasionally seen on the Continent; in this country (England) I have only heard of one or two of such color. Note: Blues are not uncommon in the U.S. but are not as good as the other colors.
Weight: 13 to 16 ounces.
Length: 12 ½ to 14 inches.
Inner edge of eye to tip of beak: 7/8 inch.
Width of skull: 1 to 1 1/8 inches (measured between, not over the
eye wattles).
Diameter of eye wattle: 1 1/8 inches.
Length of limb: 4 ¼ to 4 ¾ inches.
These dimensions apply to cocks, and would be modified for hens,
more especially in width of skull.