CHAPTER XV. 



THE TURBIT. 



THE Turbit is a variety closely resembling the Owl in many respects ; it has, 

 however, been distinguished as a separate breed for many years. Willughby, 

 in his " Ornithology," 1678, writes as follows respecting this race : — 



" Turbits, of the meaning and original of which name I must confess myself 

 to be ignorant, have a very short thick bill, like a bullfinch ; the crown of 

 their head is flat and depressed ; the feathers in the breast reflected both ways. 

 They are about the bigness of Jacobines, or a little bigger. I take these to be the 

 Candy or Indian Doves of Aldrovandus, the Low Dutch Cortbeke." 



Moore, in the " Columbarium," gives the following short account of the breed : — 



" The reason why this pigeon is named by the English I cannot by any means 

 account for ; the Low Dutch call it cort-beke, or short-bill, upon 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 fringe or the frill of a modern shirt ; this is called the purle, and 

 the more of it the bird has, the more it is admired. As for the feather, their tail 

 and the back of the wings ought to be of one entire colour, as blue, black, red, 

 yellow, dun, and chequered ; the flight-feathers and all the rest of the body should 

 be white. They are a very pretty light pigeon, and if used to fly when young, 

 some of them make very good flyers. I have seen a flight of them kept by one 

 Girton, that would mount almost as high as Tumblers. There are of this sort all 

 white, black, and blue, which by a mistake are often called and taken for Owls." 



This description by the compiler of the Treatise is almost literally the same as 

 that of Moore, but he adds that the Turbit should have a head "with a gullet," 

 and that in the red and yellow birds, the tails should not match the shoulders in 

 colour, but be white. 



In the work nominally written by Girton, the account is again a close copy of 

 Moore ; and it is interesting to note, that the flight of Turbits, which Moore, 

 writing in 1735, says "were kept by one Girton," in Girton's book, which was 

 certainly published between sixty and seventy years after the date of Moore, is 



