POINTS OF THE TURBIT. 169 



thai in very good-headed specimens the tongue is often rather 

 too long for the mouth, and causes death by canker from the 

 irritation. This may be prevented by snipping off the horny 

 tip of the tongue. 



Turbits resemble Owls in many points, and both Mr. Fulton 

 and many others adopt the head of the Owl in toto as the 

 standard for the Turbit, except, perhaps, the curving upper man- 

 dible. To this we cannot agree. The -head, though round in 

 general shape, is longer, and the gape of the mouth far wider ; 

 the beak also, though short, is not so short, nor so down-faced : 

 it is, in fact, both a straighter and heavier beak altogether. The 

 greatest fault in Turbits is a long and spindly beak, and it is 

 found far easier in practice to change this by an Owl cross into 

 an Owl's beak, than to breed the true massive beak of the 

 Turbit with a good "frog-mouth." Otherwise, the same re- 

 marks apply to beak-wattle, which should fill up the curve of the 

 forehead, as in the Owl. The gullet also resembles that variety. 



The frill in a Turbit should be ample in volume, and extend 

 as far up and down as possible. Comparing the ideal of both 

 head and frill with that of the Owl, it will be seen that in 

 the Turbit the model is very much the shape of the coloured 

 shoulder of the bird, or a kind of egg-shape. 



The colour of the Turbit is all white; except the shoulders 

 of the wings, which are found black, blue, blue-chequered, 

 silver, red, yellow, and dun. The blues and allied colours 

 are of course barred. The eyes are generally black or very 

 dark hazel, the bull-eye showing that the foundation of the 

 variety was originally a white bird. There is generally more 

 or less colour under the wing, and sometimes very good birds 

 are rather foul-thighed. Occasionally even a flight or two is 

 foul, for which reason it is better if an inner flight or two be 

 white, provided it does not interfere with the colour of the side 

 or shoulder when the wing is closed. 



