The Illustrated Book of Pigeons. 
290 
adds greatly to the appearance of shortness in beak and face ; indeed, without it we do not think 
any bird can have the appearance a fancier desires, and a good gullet will often give a very fair or 
even fine appearance to a bird really faulty in the beak. This gullet is not the real throat, but 
merely a development of the skin, being quite transparent if a lighted candle be held the other 
side. In a good specimen it appears to start from the very base of the under mandible, and looks 
like a stay, as if to draw and hold the beak down. It should be as deep as possible — deep, that is, 
from front to back, rather than from top to bottom. We value this property very highly, especially 
when found in a nice “down-faced” bird, because it is one which cannot be imitated or improved 
by art, but must be bred in the bird. The down face is often imitated, the beak being manipulated 
in the manner already described in the chapter on Barbs, which not only, if gently and skilfully 
done, improves the downward set of the beak, but also the curve of the head, which it tends to 
bring into a more semi-circular form. In itself the manipulation can scarcely be detected; but here 
is the great value of a good gullet, that it is generally (we have seen a few exceptions) a pretty good 
test of the genuineness of the other point. A really good bird has naturally the short down-face 
and finely-curved head ; and when these points are naturally in the bird, a good gullet is rarely 
absent. Such a bird need not therefore be suspected ; but if a bird with fine down-face be found 
with no gullet or very little, there is — not certainty, perhaps, but cause for very grave suspicion, 
that the other point is the result of art. We never saw a really naturally good Turbit that had 
not a good gullet ; while very rarely did we see this point good that the bird had not other valuable 
properties. Some have said that a good gullet is the effect of age, and not to be expected in a 
young bird ; but this is not correct. With age it does become somewhat fuller and deeper, but if 
the desired quality be not clearly discernible even in the nest-pan — say, at the age of three weeks — 
it will never be what is desired ; and when the bird is a few months old it should be, though not 
perhaps quite fully developed, well marked and prominent. 
Next is the head itself, which should be, like the gullet, well formed from an early age, and if 
not well formed in the nest-paiv, never will become so. Of course age will increase the size and 
development of the head, as in all other varieties of Short-faced Pigeons, but it adds little to shape. 
This should be finely rounded in front, showing an even curve or arch from the point of the beak 
to the top of the head, and thence falling rather suddenly to the back, as if the curve were there 
sharply cut off. This causes a rather long appearance from the front to the peak or crest ; and 
if the bird has a good gullet and the peak or crest is on the proper part of the head, the effect is a 
great appearance of depth from gullet to crest, especially in profile. The front of the skull should 
be very broad in proportion to the size of the bird, though by no means flat, but well bulged out 
in all directions. 
The next point is the peak or crest, though the latter term is more strictly applicable to what 
are called shell-crested birds. These latter, we believe, were at one time preferred, and the peak- 
crest, now so greatly admired, seems to be the work of modern fanciers, by whom it is so much 
preferred, that the old shell-crest is by many almost discarded. We certainly consider the peak- 
crest much the most attractive as well as most difficult to breed, and that in fact with it the Turbit 
has gained an additional point ; still we must regret to see the shell-crest despised, knowing, as we 
do, that but for it we should never have attained the peak-crested birds. Too many birds, indeed, 
show neither a good shell-crest nor yet a peak, but a sort of half-and-half thing which is neither ; 
and such crests often undergo a sudden moult before exhibition, to make them into good peak- 
crests, but such never really succeeds. A good-peak crest must be high up, and evenly formed; and 
when this is naturally so, there will be found underneath what is called the mane, or a meeting of 
the feathers into a line at the back, as described in the Jacobin. This is possessed in perfection by 
