CHAPTER NINE. 



THE FRILL FAMILY. 

 The Owl. 



There Is little doubt that the Owl originally came from 

 the East, and although there are two varieties of the 

 Owl classified — that is to say, the Owl proper and the 

 African Owl — in my opinion there is every indication that 

 the families are related in no very remote manner. I can 

 remember, many years ago, when the only classification 

 for the Owl was the Owl proper, but it is in latter days 

 that the other varieties have branched off, and I am now 

 fortunate in being able to include from the pen of Mr. 

 J. L. Burgess a most interesting introduction to the 

 African Owl, which is such a very popular variety at the 

 present time. The beauty of the Owl consists in the 

 shape of the head, the beak, the gullet, and the frill. Of 

 late years there has been a good deal of coarseness in 

 the Owls in the pen, larger birds, not nearly so shapely 

 and stylish in their carriage, having been awarded prizes 

 by judges. The beak of the Owl should be short, thick, 

 and chubby — in fact, a perfect Owl head is really a 

 perfect Turbit head. The beak wattle needs to be smooth 

 and full. The gullet should be a distinctive feature of 

 the Owl, as a good gullet adds very considerably to the 

 charm of the variety. As the frill of the Owl is one of 

 the distinctive features of the bird, it has often been a 

 surprise to me that more attention has not been paid by 

 breeders to this feature instead of to merely the head 

 and beak properties. There is no doubt that the Owl is 

 a most intelligent bird and was used by the Belgians in 

 founding their long-distance strain of racers, for fre- 

 quently racing pigeons are thrown with a distinct Owl 



