The Illustrated Book of Plgeons. 
3 T 4 
dark-tailed white Owl, with the remarkable white spots in the tail feathers. The last are freely 
produced and much admired in the East, though they have there the advantage of producing 
more perfect birds from such a cross than we can, as their Owl pigeons are grouse-muffed, as well 
as nearly all the birds they admire ; and they originally propagated these grouse-muffs from the 
Satinettes by systematic crosses, of which I shall speak hereafter. 
“ Do not be led astray by the colour of these birds, and begin to think that you can cross them 
with birds approaching their colour, such as Hyacinths and others of the German toys. If so, in 
trying to keep the colour or markings, which is only one of their principal beauties, you lose several 
most important points, such as the frill, the shape of head and beak, the general outline and carriage, 
which, once lost, cannot easily be regained. When I first showed my stock of these birds to a friend 
in Birmingham, some fourteen years ago, he said he never had such a treat before, but he thought 
that he had, there and then, conceived the idea how they were bred ; so he asked me to let him 
have even an imperfect specimen, be it only a crossed one, and eventually he had one, a white with 
a blue tail, possessing the white spots and grouse-muffed, being bred from a Satinette and a 
grouse-muffed, dark-tailed, Oriental Owl. He paired this bird to a Hyacinth, and persevered for 
years, crossing and recrossing, though I told him that he strove in vain ; and, after all, one can 
perceive, to the present day, traces of the Satinette on several birds, but the head properties and 
the frill have suffered irretrievably, and the only property remaining is the colour. This is not an 
isolated case. Another fancier I know, who commenced by crossing pure-bred birds with the 
Hyacinths, but with the same results. Experience has proved to me that the maxim of the 
venerable Oriental fanciers, viz., ‘ Never cross a frilled and short-beaked with a non-frilled and thin- 
beaked tribe, if your intention is to retain and perpetuate those properties,’ is the only basis upon 
which one can proceed with safety. 
“ The general appearance of the young I intend to describe collectively at the end of the 
description of the tri-coloured varieties. 
“ I now pass on to the varieties which owe their beauty of colour, markings, and muffs to these 
original Satinettes. These arc Blondinettcs, the manufacture of which commenced during my 
own presence in the East. 
BLONDINETTES. 
“About twenty-four years ago one of the principal Oriental fanciers conceived the idea of 
breeding, if possible, every variety they possessed with the grouse-muffs of the Satinettes. He 
commenced first with the Owl tribe, and he succeeded in breeding from a cross of a silver Owl and 
a Satinette a blue Owl with partially-feathered legs. He then mated this blue Owl with a Satinette 
hen, and this cross produced the first Blondinctte, which I succeeded in obtaining from him. But’ 
you must understand that though this young bird was grouse-muffed, and of a similar body and 
shoulder-colour to the present birds, it only possessed small white spots on the tail feathers, and 
none on the flights. 
“ This proved a cock bird, and soon after I met with a similarly bred hen, as nearly like 
the cock as possible, bred by a Turkish fancier, which I procured, and mated to the cock I had ; 
but before these birds began to breed, I departed for America, where, after a year, I received the 
information that my stock was in the hands of the old Presbyter I alluded to previously. Under 
his care their cultivation commenced, but very soon it spread, and it became the principal aim of 
every fancier; we shall now see with what result. 
“ The general formation of the Blondinettes arc as in the Satinettes. They are bred crested 
and plain-headed, the former preferred, though the original were plain-headed ; but as the fashion 
then became reversed, and the Owls were bred crested and the Turbits plain-headed, this variety 
