From the Beginning
by Darcy Cook
My first Jacobins came from Jack Nesbitt of Sydney in
1952. I still possess photos (right) of them, which I find
quite amusing. They had long correct bodies but no
carriage.They were almost parallel to the ground no
carriage what so ever. These birds had feather only an
inch to an inch and a half long. By 1955 they were vastly improved and had been outcrossed with stock from Lew Freebairn in Adelaide and McWhitley in Melbourne. They won everything in New South Wales but met their doom when they came up against the first New Zealand imports into Victoria owned by Harry Hillier
To get with the strength, I imported three pair from Bill Whiteside in June 1955. They were from imported stock into New Zealand with the bloodlines from the great British breeder Dr. Elliot. In 1958 I brought back from Christchurch an 8 year old red cock with great feather quality. Cobb, that big feather breeder had exported the father of this bird to Ben Watson of New Zealand. From this old red cock I bred the World Poultry Congress Champion in August 1962. Bill Whiteside imported a stud from Mrs. Reed of Scotland in early 1963. I was in Christchurch again a month after they arrived. When I was asked what I thought of them, I replied that I would not feed them. I had only kept Jacobins for 10 years and I was young and I had a lot to learn. The Reed imports were slender and stood well and blended well with the big, thick-feathered Elliot birds. Actually the imported Reed yellow hen would be the mother of most Jacobins in the Southern Hemisphere. I kept going year in year out breeding 80 to 100 Jacobins every season and following the Standard (as I thought) which says 49 points from the shoulder up. I created bigger hoods, mane and chain. Other breeders were amazed and judges put up many of my birds for Grand Champion Pigeon.
In 1965 I was in Brisbane and Bob Morrison showed me photos of some Canadian Jacs in the Ontario publication "Fur & Feather", subscribers to the American Pigeon Journal would have seen them in the November 1969 Jacobin Special. I just drooled over these photos and told myself that I was a mug and on the wrong track. The Canadian birds were so slender and I was a least 3 to 4 years behind them. My action was to place a large barrow outside my loft door and every Jacobin that showed excess thickness at the shoulder was discarded. The Congress Grand Champion and Victorian Royal Grand Champion of 1965 contributed towards a barrow full. The result has been that my strong action paid off. The 1971 Jacobin must stand with the eye over the ball of the foot, it must be slender at the shoulders with a good long neck. Of course the have a tendency to grow longer in some birds but this is not a problem as yet, the body must be long with plenty of length in the flights and tail. The bigger you get the top feather, the more I feel it has to be balanced in the rear.
To allow for the eye to be over the ball of the foot the body must be arched, this arched body naturally makes the first few flight feathers protrude up, as you have perfectly straight feathers lying beside the arched body. You can pick a good youngster in the nest when it is about two weeks old. Hold it in the left hand and gently stretch the neck with the fingers of the right hand. If the neck is not long then there is only one thing to do because it's only a 1960 model.
For years I have been saying that a real champion Jacobin should be twice as long in a line through the eye from the back of the mane to front of the eye chain as it is long in a line across the body at the shoulders. Jacobin fanciers that should have known here ignorant of what I was saying. James Purdon that immortal Scottish fancier told me in 1953 that a Jacobin must be one and a half times to one across in reds.
From the slender shoulders, the lower chain must throw right forward to make the complete circle. Now, that the circle of feather is up off the shoulders, feathers are appearing more as there is now more room for them forming a stronger lower circle. Feather quality has improved vastly on the original imported Elliot birds. The feather was too hairy, without webbing and appeared to me as though they had just emerged from a wind tunnel. We breed long feather, then as we improve the quality the heavier it becomes. Then you have a nervy bird that forces itself to hold it up. I say nervy as a sour or placid Jac in the walking pen is destined for underground.
In the process of creating the Ontario look, I said to David Littman of Brisbane that they have to possess the "Up Look", he enlightened me as to this is brought about by leg setting. My 1971 Jacobins will be propped high with a perfect high circle.
In breeding nothing comes easy but you do have a show if you know what you are breeding for. I have line-bred and in-bred for 18 years now and I have noticed a steady improvement. Every year a breakthrough appears. That is one, with a difference that I use as a key bird, on the other hand the greatest Jacobin I have ever see up to 1966 was a black cock bred by Bill Whiteside from an ordinary looking black Elliot cock and a Reed kite hen. There was about fifteen years between the times of their importation. I have bred good Jacobins but never his equal to date. Roy Boug the top Canadian says he likes the outcrosses, but who knows he may mean an outcross within his own strain.
