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CHAPTER XIX. 
THE OWL. 
This pigeon, there is not the slightest doubt, takes its name from the resemblance the downward 
curve of its beak gives it to the well-known bird of night. The true Owl beak in perfection is rare ; 
but in some specimens the upper mandible appears to fill a complete quarter of a circle, and being 
longer than the lower one, turns over it like the beak of a parrot, giving the most extreme “ down- 
face ” exhibited by any of the pigeon race. The more this property is exaggerated the more the 
pigeon is fancied. 
As to the origin of the Owl, there is hardly the shadow ot doubt that it came to us from the 
East, and was either discovered or created — at all events perfected — by Mahommedan fanciers. Its 
ancient origin and descent are proved by the great number of toys which, as we shall see further on, 
have branched off from it and still show its most essential properties. Of these the Turbit men- 
tioned in the last chapter is probably one, and ought perhaps in strictness to have come after the 
Owl, though placed before it by us on account of having acquired two additional properties in 
peak and marking ; but the whole Satinette tribe must be pronounced of the same lineage ; 
and these many sub-varieties prove at least the attractiveness of the type. A prettier type, 
indeed, it would be hard to conceive of, and we are surprised that more ladies have not discovered 
the delicate, fragile-looking beauty of this exquisite pigeon. 
The Owl itself, besides its direct descendant the Turbit, has itself branched off into three 
varieties, namely, the so-called English Owl ; the Foreign, better known as the African Owl ; and 
the Whiskered Owl. We say it has branched off thus, though we know many fanciers 
consider there are three, or at least two, really distinct breeds. But size alone can hardly be 
granted to make a variety ; and very few judges we have ever met with of the so-called English 
Owl, but wished the birds in all but size to resemble the Foreign or African. There is however no 
doubt that the English off-shoot came from the parent stem some time ago ; and being bred for a 
long period without fresh importation, insensibly acquired a type of its own, larger and coarser than 
its progenitor, the prevailing English taste being then for larger pigeons, and even the Tumbler 
being a comparatively modern manufacture. Thus, there is little doubt, the specimens imported 
probably at least two centuries ago settled down into the English Owl ; and when, only a very few 
years back, good specimens from the Eastern stem again came over to be compared with them, it 
is little wonder that after so long a separation the two types had somewhat diverged. Such is, we 
believe, the true relation of the English to the Foreign Owl. 
If ever there was a class of fancy pigeon that can be said to be really “bred to perfection,” it 
is the Small or African Owl. How rare “ perfect ” birds are, each fancier sighs to think, as he 
strives to recall his own past achievements : but we have both had, and seen in the hands of other 
fanciers, many birds of this beautiful variety, that really left nothing to wish for, except it perhaps 
might be — ah ! the dissatisfaction of the fancier will come out — a little more frill. It is however a 
rare thing to get so much as this ; and this at most very slight deficiency in one point is the sole 
