191 FRILL-BREASTED PIGEONS. 



in the great majority. From the following account of the 

 Turbit and Owl, by Moore (the description of the latter being 

 the first notice by name there is of it), it will be seen how 

 much he was indebted to Willughby, who wrote about sixty 

 years before him: 



" The Turbit. The Reason, why this Pigeon is so nam'd by 

 the English, I cannot by any Means account for; the low 

 Dutch call it Cort-beke or Short-bill upon the Account of the 

 Shortness of its Beak. It is a small Pigeon very little bigger 

 than a Jacobine, its Beak is very short like a Partridge, and 

 the shorter the better; it has a round button Head, and the 

 Feathers on the Breast open and reflect both Ways, standing 

 out almost like a Fringe or the Frill of a modern Shirt ; this is 

 call'd the Purle, and the more of it the Bird has, the more 

 it is admir'd. As for the Feather, their Tail and Back of the 

 Wings ought to be of one entire Colour, as blue, black, red, 

 yellow, dun and sometimes chequer'd; the flight Feathers and 

 all the rest of the Body shou'd be white. They are a very 

 pretty light Pigeon, and if us'd to fly when young, some 

 of them make very good flyers. I have seen a Flight of 

 them kept by one Girton that wou'd mount almost high as 

 Tumblers. There are of this Sort all white, black, and blue, 

 which by a Mistake are often call'd and taken for Owls." 



" The Owl. This Pigeon is in make and Shape like the 

 former, except that the upper Chap of its Beak is hookt over 

 like an Owl's from whence it has its Name. Its Plumage is 

 always entirely white, blue, or black." 



Moore also mentions, when writing of the disease called the 

 vertigo : " I once had a Turbit, of the Owl Kind, taken with 

 it in a violent Manner." 



There is no mention of the gullet or crest in this description ; 

 the head, however, is said to be round, and it was not the 

 shoulder marking alone that constituted a Turbit, as it might 

 be self-coloured. The difference between the Turbit and Owl 

 seemed to be only in the beak. 



