English and Foreign Owls. 
301 
supposing our older offshoot to have been, every one knows how the better cocks will continue to 
show signs of the departed qualities long after the hens have ceased to do so. 
As to which type should be bred for now, we confess to siding personally with the majority of 
fanciers, who place the Foreign far in advance. The small bird, we have already said, is much the 
most perfect at present in Owl points, though in this respect the English bird may be improved. 
But, on the score of size alone, the small bird is to most people the more attractive ; and toy pigeons 
generally, excepting the Trumpeter, are all preferred and look better small. We hardly know a 
judge of toy pigeons but would give the preference to a small one of any variety, if really as good 
in properties as the larger, and we see no reason why the Owl should be an exception. There 
is just one argument on the other side, and this is of considerable weight. It is that the very 
small birds, as a rule, are bad breeders, besides being very delicate. On this account we have 
known many people, who began with a clearly-expressed preference for the Foreign Owl, get 
discouraged by their successive losses, and take to the larger bird, declaring that to be the real 
genuine breed. On this account few would wish to see the large or English Owl done away 
with ; and as it is so far from perfection, we would mainly insist ori the real identity of breed 
in order to induce fanciers of the hardier sort to seek to impart to their favourites all the fine 
points of the higher-caste rival. 
There is, however, one real distinction as regards some English hirds, and as it is the only one, it 
deserves particular notice. It was well put once in our own hearing by that old and much- 
respected fancier Mr. Esquilant, who remarked that the only certain way of seeing a really true- 
bred English Owl now was to see a “Powdered Blue ’’-—this being a colour we never saw or heard of 
in any of the small variety. We have also inquired of Mr. Caridia, to whom we are indebted for 
the notes which will appear in the next chapter on Eastern Toys derived from the Owl stem, and 
who knows this class of pigeon better than probably any one else in this country ; and he informs 
us that, though foreigners as a rule have far surpassed English breeders in the production of colour 
and marking, the “ Powdered ” variety appears to be unknown, Still stranger is the fact, that 
though many Foreign birds have been both imported and bred as large as the naturalised English 
stock, and repeatedly crossed with the latter in order to impart the better beak, gullet, and frill of 
the small to the larger bird, we never knew any of these crosses produce a Powdered Blue or 
Powdered Silver. The former remarkable colour, one of the most beautiful of any, consists of a 
very pale silvery blue on the body, with jet-black bars, nearly approaching the colour of a Silver, 
but without the least shade of D1411 ; while the head and part way down the neck is a pale but 
more distinct blue, delicately “ frosted ” with silver ; or somewhat as if powdered with flour ; or 
yet again, a little like very fine dew or hoar frost on the grass. Powdered Silver is a delicate silver 
similarly “ powdered ” on the head and upper part of the neck. This peculiar colour we believe to 
be the sole foundation for still keeping up the theory of a really English Owl, and but for it all 
would probably have/nerged ere this into one stock unquestioned. Yet, strange to say, we have no 
reason to think this variety of very high antiquity ; for, to the best of our knowledge and belief, and 
as we have also been assured by several old fanciers who were in a position to be well-informed, 
the late Mr. Matthew Wicking — who well deserved to be called a king anfong toy pigeons, 
since no English fancier ever equalled him, either in the number he kept or the perfect mastery 
he seemed to possess of the art of breeding any colour and marking he wanted — was the 
first to invent, or produce, or introduce the colour known as Powdered Blue. Certainly we 
have never been able to trace any before him ; and great was the surprise of many London fanciers 
when the new and startlingly beautiful colour came upon the stage. The first we ever ourselves 
saw was about the year 1854. The colour was produced — very likely partly by some lucky chance 
