304 
The Illustrated Book of Pigeons. 
The skull should be short, broad, and globular, nicely rounded in every direction. For the 
head or skull to be long, or narrow behind the beak, or flat, or any way removed from the short, 
chubby, round, bullet form, is a great fault, and spoils a bird for exhibition in at least the Foreign 
class ; for as the Owl really has but four characteristic properties, viz., beak, skull, gullet, and frill, 
none of them can be spared without its absence being unpleasantly noticeable, no one property 
being so conspicuous (as in the case of beak-wattle in a Carrier, for instance) as to hide the absence 
of another. Many of the small hens have a sort of protuberance at the back of the skull, which 
tends to give a sort of flatness to the top of the head, as in a good Barb. This we regard as a 
great fault in any size of Owl, particularly when exaggerated. It will be found that birds too long 
in the head very generally have too long and thin beaks. This will be clearly seen by comparing 
any average English with a good small African Owl, when the English bird’s skull will appear in 
comparison little better in shape than that of a young Short-faced Antwerp. 
The next point is the gullet , or dewlap. This should be, as in the Turbit, as full as possible, 
and, as in that pigeon, adds to apparent shortness of head and beak. We have only known one 
fancier who did not consider the gullet one of the best points of the Owl pigeon, and he so old a 
breeder of it as Mr. Harrison Weir ; yet, strange to say, in one of the best of the coloured drawings 
which he has made for Mr. Tegetmeier’s Pigeon Book he has represented a pair of Owls in fine 
attitudes, and with gullets beautifully developed ; just as he has expressed his dislike to mane in a 
Jacobin, yet represented, in his large drawing of a Jack’s head and neck, a mane which is all but 
perfection ! Without further noting these inconsistencies, however, we may safely say that all 
present fanciers are agreed in regarding the gullet as an Owl property, and that it should reach 
down the throat to the spot where the next property, the frill, begins. 
On this property we need add nothing in the way of description to what was said in the last 
chapter. Every bird is greatly wanting without it ; and knowing how it is admired, and the great 
progress made as regards head-points of late in the English Owl, we wonder more has not been 
done to improve the frill, the more so as this is a property which can be seen even in the nest-pan, 
and is as good after the first moult as it ever will be. We know from our own experience that it 
only needs a little care in selecting the best frills to make considerable improvement; and this, 
being a feather-point, is seen at once, and thus gives the fancier an immediate pleasure ; whereas, 
an improvement in skull, even when attained, takes say two years before it can be seen in perfection 
by the producer. The rose-frill is what is desired in the Owl,* and is sometimes seen wonder- 
fully accurate. Some people call it the purle. The first thing, however, in nearly all birds, is to 
get more of it to work upon ; but when once obtained in a pair of birds it is very easily kept up. 
As a proof of this we may state that we once purchased a pair of birds for their plentiful develop- 
ment of this one quality alone. We sold the old pair when they had only one young one alive, 
before we had seen what that young one was, and not discovering for several months what a 
beautiful bird they had bred. The purchaser, a well-known fancier, exhibited the pair several 
times successfully as English Owls ; but when the progeny moulted out their development was so 
extraordinary that he actually suspected some cross with the Jacobin, and on that account we 
repurchased both the original birds and their young ones. No sign of any cross ever appeared, 
and indeed the peculiarity of the frill is quite distinct from the chain of the Jacobin ; but several 
nests since have proved that the breeding of this pair was no chance matter, all coming with the 
rose-frill, but in some instances so large as to reach to the very butts of the wings. 
* By “rose-frill” we do not mean merely a small tuft of feathers, which some fanciers dignify by the title ot a “rose,” 
because they breed no better ; but a good frill, as long as may be from gullet to breast, only nicely parted from the centre. 
