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Rare
and still not completely understood pieds: Covered and hearted at
bagdettes and Franconian Trumpeters
'Covered' is a regular pied marking on Bagdettes and Franconian
Trumpeter pigeons. In races in which it can be found, there are also
hearted pieds. Those are named after their colored shoulder mark and
the colored back (Neumeister/Prütz 1876, p. 37). From above, the
colored parts appear heart-shaped. In addition, hearted and covered
have a colored cheek. In old literature covered were named simple
pieds. In the standard of 1951 for Nuremberg Bagdettes is was made
clear by an addition in brackets that pied for this breed means
covered: "Color classes: All main and minor colors in hearted, pieds
(covered) as well as selfs". When covered, the entire wing shield
except for the wing bug is 'covered' in color.
 
Fig.
1: Franconian Trumpeter black covered from the German language book
‚Tauben. Züchten mit System‘,1995; Nuremberg Bagdette hearted in the
German Book of Standards 1951
A
first, albeit not quite correct, drawing of a covered stems from
Neumeister 1837 in the depiction of a 'bagadotte'. Only the colored
cheek is missing. The covered is probably almost coincidentally hit
almost right, because Neumeister seems to have recognized in the
piebalds of the breed, inclusive the hearted, yet no regular pied
marking and the distribution of the colored patches more likely to
have considered arbitrary. This also applies to Prütz 1876 as editor
of the 3rd edition of the Neumeister, which shows the same drawing,
however further alienated there from reality.
 
Fig.
2: Detail from the table on Bagdettes at Neumeister 1837 und the
same complete table from the third edition edited by G. Prütz 1876
with enlarged distance to reality
However, the correct drawing of a hearted can be found at Prütz in
his pigeon book of 1885. Schachtzabel shows 1910 next to a white and
three hearted also a covered. Such is also found on the brochure by
W.K.G. Moebes on the Nuremberg Bagdettes from 1950.
 
Fig.
3: Bagdettes blue covered (at the lefts) and yellow, black and red
hearted (middle) as well as white (at the right) at Schachtzabel
1910; black and red hearted and a white and blue covered bagdette at
the brochure from Werner K.G. Moebes on Nuremberg Bagdettes 1950
Figures and the contrast in the coloration has not only motivated
animal painters. The figure of the Nuremberg has also found its way
into the formative art of pigeon sculptures.
Fig.
4: Nuremberg Bagdette hearted and covered by Dieter M. Fliedner
https://www.pigeon-anatomy.com/kontakt-contact/
The
traditional name 'hearted' has not been so long back in the German
pigeon standard in some races converted in 'geganselt'. Not
necessarily helpful in understanding the genetics of this marking,
as they differ from ‘gansel’ both historically and genetically, as
gansel is historically found in tumblers like Vienna Gansel and
related breeds that not only differ in lacking the cheek.
The
inheritance for 'covered' is complex according to previous findings
(Sell 2012, 2015). For breeders, pigeons that breed not true but
split, after the literally understood motto, ‘breed pure and breed
real’ often are considered something indecent. They try to eradicate
the inexplicable for them. For others the initially incomprehensible
splitting of the covered, the reassembling in the breeding in
further generations as well as the color contrasts of the pied
marking appear as a miracle of the nature. From this point of view,
a worthwhile heritage of pigeon breeding. Information on inheritance
we owe breeders of the Franconian Trumpeters around Rudolf Hartmann
years ago. Covered mated together split in the breeding pen and
could be bred in a symbiosis with whites, other selfs and hearted
ones. Two covered mated together can produce in the appropriate
genetic constellation in addition to covered and hearted also selfs.
The secondary colors can also be used in the breeding pen to raise
covered again.
Fig.
5: Montage on the possible splitting from mating two covered
Franconian Trumpeters in colored selfs, covered, hearted and self
whites
The
organised pigeon fancy understands itself as an organization that
preserves ancient cultural assets. However, the organisation is
sometimes more successful at destruction. The renaming of hearted in
gansel is certainly not helpful for understanding the color class.
In genetic terminology one should stay better at 'hearted'. Also
breeders for themselves contribute to destabilization of the
hereditary traits by frequent pairings with unrelated colors and
pied markings, not only in the color classes discussed here. At the
shows, deviations from the traditional phenotype often are not
recognized as fundamentally different, such as in the case of the
Franconian Trumpeter shown, which despite a colored underbelly and
lack of the white bug was exhibited and judged as covered.
Fig.
6: Franconian Trumpeters exhibited both as covered. At the left with
colored underbelly instead of white and also the white wing bug is
missing. May be a late consequence of a former cross with English
Nun Pigeons to improve the crest structure, at the right an
individual with correct marking
Wrongly highlighted as the representative great Nationals and
reported and shown in the fancy press as correct representatives,
the new piebalds can lead to the disappearance of the originals and
with them the hereditary factors behind. That was once mentioned in
a chapter of the German language book "Breeding with System" years
ago as ‘not recognized new breedings’ (heimliche Neuzüchtungen). You
substitute a color or marking by a similar one and nobody realize
that. If you wanted to seriously protect what is worth to be saved
in breeding pigeons, monitoring and education about breeding
backgrounds would be an indispensable task for breeding committees.
Literature:
Hellmann, Thomas, The Scandaroon. A Historical Review by Werner K.
Moebes, o.O., July 2018
Moebes, Werner
K.G., Die Nürnberger Bagdette im Wandel der Zeit, Bochum, no year
(1950)
Neumeister, G.,
Das Ganze der Taubenzucht, 3. Auflage von Gustav Prütz Weimar 1876.
Unveränderter Nachdruck Verlag Neumann-Neudamm 1988
Neumeister, G.,
Das Ganze der Taubenzucht, Weimar 1837
Prütz, Gustav,
Illustrirtes Mustertaubenbuch, Hamburg, no year (1885)
Schachtzabel, E.,
Illustriertes Prachtwerk sämtlicher Tauben-Rassen, Würzburg, no year
(1910)
Sell, Axel, Pigeon Genetics. Applied Genetics in the Domestic
Pigeon, Achim 2012
Sell, Axel,
Tauben. Züchten mit System, Reutlingen 1995
Sell, Axel,
Genetik der Taubenfärbungen, Achim 2015
S. Jürgens Verlag
(Hrsg.), Die Musterbeschreibung der Tauben. Autorisierte Ausgabe der
Fachorganisationen der deutschen Rassegeflügelzüchter, München 1951
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