Description of the Cap. i57 



bounded by a straight line at the back, or, as it is called, "cut square," and others perfectly 

 elliptical. Perhaps the best form is what is familiarly termed a "thumb-nail," which may be 

 described as being midway between the two, being, in fact, a " square-cut " cap with the corners 

 rounded off, by which nothing of the width is lost, while there is no harshness of outline. There 

 are really no angles or straight lines in the outline of a bird. What is recognised as an oval cap 

 sometimes appears narrow, and detracts from the positive width of the back of the head, especially 

 if the oval be at all pointed ; while the " thumb-nail," which in its most perfect form is bounded in 

 the rear by a curved and not a mathematically straight line, and is in reality one form of ellipse, 

 fills the eye. This cap now occupies that place in our allegiance we were at one time disposed to 

 give to a pure oval. We have given as our idea a civilised example of a " thumb-nail," because 

 there are thumb-nails and there are oyster- shells. 



A perfect cap should be bounded by a line commencing at the top of the beak and passing 

 over the top of the eye round to the back of the head in the same plane, and returning in the same 

 way on the other side. It must not come lower than the top of the eye, and the boundary-line 

 at this part should be a hair-line of clearly-defined feathers. The absence of this hair-line is 

 not a fatal blemish, its presence in an unbroken form being comparatively rare. A good type of it 

 may be seen in any of the coloured illustrations. This dark marginal bordering is not formed 

 by a single row of minute feathers, but as frequently as not by the extremities of feathers forming 

 quite a patch over the eye, their base being entirely covered by the lighter feathers of the cap. 

 This formation can be seen if the margin of the cap be raised with the edge of a knife ; and it might, 

 perhaps, astonish some who do not look very closely into such matters to see on how small a 

 surface the actual cap frequently grows. The cap of a nestling, when just beginning to sprout, 

 often presents the appearance of a mere streak, and seems to bear no proportion to the amount of 

 dark feathers on either side ; but if it be regular in shape — and at this stage of its existence every 

 feather can be seen, and the slightest defect ascertained — there need be no fear as to its ultimately 

 covering its allotted space, and such apparently too wide margin of dark feathers becomes no 

 defect, but develops into the fine hair-line we have referred to as the cap arrives at maturity. 



The outline of the cap must be clearly defined and unbroken, and its entire area unsullied 

 by the presence of a single dark feather, which simply means that it must be absolutely clear — a 

 point which cannot be too rigidly adhered to as a standard, though its practical illustration is 

 so exceedingly rare that by common consent the nearest approximation to perfection is usually 

 accepted, notwithstanding there are some fanciers of the variety who will not accept any 

 compromise, maintaining that it is the hard and fast line by which a Lizard shall be qualified or 

 disqualified for the show-stage. The slightest departure from what is understood as a clear cap 

 constitutes it foul, and the principal defects to which the cap is subject may be described as (ci) 

 those affecting its fair surface, and iU) marginal blemishes. The whole are included in the idea _/"(?«/, 

 since every imperfect cap, in whatever may consist its imperfection, must be considered foul ; but 

 whereas the blemishes which affect the fair surface or area can only arise from the presence of larger 

 or smaller isolated patches of dark feathers in its clear expanse, the marginal blemishes can consist 

 either in an encroachment of the cap on the surrounding dark region, or in a corresponding 

 encroachment of the surrounding dark feathers on the margin of the clear area; any intrusion of the 

 surrounding feathers on the clear surface constituting what has of late years come to be generally 

 recognised as a broken cap, and any intrusion of the cap itself on the dark feathers of the neck 

 being called a run cap, than which two more suggestive terms could scarcely be used, conveying 

 as they do clearly in the one case the idea of a clear surface broken into or intruded upon by a 

 foreign, element, and io the other the idea of that clear surface running over or exceeding its 



