206 Pigeons and All About Them. 



lish Tnrbit breeders to improve these properties, es- 

 pecially since English Turbit breeders began to place 

 a high value on frontal or bulge. 



THE ENGLISH TL^RBIT. 



This is one of the smartest and prettiest little birds 

 we have, and it is one which has a large and increasing 

 band of devotees. Turbit breeders are as a whole a 

 most enthusiastic and zealous lot of fanciers, and the 

 manner in which during the past two decades they 

 have improved the breed is deserving of the highest 

 jiraise. The Turbit, like the Owl, is judged princip- 

 ally and primarily for' its head pjroperties, the bod}' 

 being little thought of. Some may say this is rank 

 heresy. Let them think so. I know it for the truth. 

 The Turbit certainly has body properties, but who 

 ever hears a company of Turbit men discussing colour, 

 shape, or feather ? It is head and beak always, and 

 whilst skull properties dominate it must be so. Yet 

 I would remind my readers that away from the head 

 lie some of the most charming properties of the Turbit. 



Runnin,g throu.gh the points of birds, the beak 

 attracts attention first, because unless it is of the 

 proper " Bullfinch " shape, stout, short, well set, the 

 l:cautiful outline of the skull is lost. The beak wattle 

 should be wide and heart-shaped, yet fine in substance, 

 and close fitting. 



The head should be large, yet not coarse. Its 

 frontal should be very wide and full, and rise in un- 

 broken line from the beak, with the feathers growing, 

 as it were, out of the wattle. The top of the skull 

 is not round like that of the Owl, but it somewhat flat 

 after the rise of the frontal is left at the eye. By 

 this I mean the back portion of the skull, and it is this 

 which gives the peculiar bolting appearance to the 

 eyes, the ceres of which should be fine and close 

 fitting. The cheeks should be full and chubby. With 

 fulness of cheeks .goes another valuable property, 

 width of gape; a flat-cheeked Turbit is usually narrow- 

 in gape. 



