292 
The Illustrated Book of Plgeons. 
his possession, at one time, more than three birds which deserved to be called first-rate in those 
other points ; while we have, in several lofts, seen many Shell-crested Turbits all that any fancier 
could wish for. In both cases the owners only cared for their own fancy as regards crest, so that 
there is a deal yet to be done in combining the excellent points of both strains. 
The eyes of the Turbit, singularly enough, are black or “bull” for all varieties and colours. 
The eye in all good specimens should be large for the size of the body, but the dark colour makes 
it appear larger still. Perhaps this apparent size may also be increased by the fact that instead of 
appearing near the centre of the side-face, as in most other pigeons, the eye of the Turbit is 
nearer the top of the head. Though the rule is for bull-eyes, we believe little if any objection 
would be made to birds with pearl or even orange-eyes, and we have seen a few very good birds 
with orange-eyes, and also broken eyes, or half bull and half orange. The colour of the eye is 
one of the points which tends to show that the Turbit was mainly derived from the White Owl, 
and the colour and crest from some other variety, which is our own opinion, though some good 
fanciers think the Owl was derived from the Turbit. 
We come next to the prettiest of all points in this pigeon, viz. : the frill on the breast, which 
is the most difficult of all the points to obtain, as it should and sometimes actually does appear. 
Of course all birds shown have some frill ; but in nearly all there is a great deficiency, not oniy in 
the proper quantity, but the manner in which it lies on the breast. The greater part have not half 
enough to begin with, and of these too many have it all on one side : and few indeed have a full 
development, parting in the middle as represented in our plates, and coming down from each side 
of the gullet at the top, becoming larger and wider till it rounds nicely off at the bottom. Such is 
termed a “ rose-frill,” and like a good crop in a Pouter, hides a multitude of other faults, when 
found really good, and indeed is only too rarely found but in company with foul thighs, or some 
other such blemish. 
The colour or marking of the Turbit, as already hinted, should be confined to the shoulder or 
covert-feathers of the wings ; but it is difficult indeed to get this marking accurate, there being, as 
a rule, too much colour towards the lower part of the breast, and round the thighs. The latter is 
called being foul-thighed, and few really good specimens — especially peak-crested — are quite free 
from this fault. A bird quite faultless should, when both wings are lifted up, appear all pure white 
underneath, and this is found only in birds which are perfect in flights. These should be pure 
white, and as in the Jacobin, perfection in flights is necessary for freedom from foulness on the 
thighs, or even more so, as we never remember a Turbit short in the number of white flights, but 
was more or less foul in thighs. With regard to this point of the flights, our illustrations (see 
page 25 1) of a Jacobin’s wing may be referred to, as whatever is a fault in the one is a similar fault 
in the other. The cleanest-thighed birds, in fact, are generally those which have one or two of the 
inner flights white as well as the outer flights, on which account we would value such highly for 
the production of clean-marked birds, as the least foulness in the thighs is observable at once if not 
removed. This is often done by plucking ; but the more skilful, as in other cases named by us, 
prefer to cut off the foul feathers close to the skin, which is permanent till next moult, whereas the 
plucked feathers soon grow again. From long experience we may give the following as a very 
generally safe rule to go by in deciding whether an apparently clean-thighed bird owes this point 
to trimming or not. If it has nine and nine white flights, or still better ten and ten, the fancier or 
judge may conclude that the bird is quite possibly genuine, and very little trimmed, if at all ; but 
with less than nine white flights a side it is nearly impossible the thighs should not be foul, and as 
the coloured feathers are chiefly the soft downy ones, detection is easy, by blowing them apart, 
when the gaps may be seen. If nothing can be observed after parting the feathers all over the 
