The Illustrated Book of Pigeons. 
3i8 
counteract and balance the colour ol the black tail. Eventually he succeeded in breeding some 
head-marked Turbits with white tails. This fashion soon spread, and about the same period the 
conversion of the crest from the Turbits to the Owls came about, this remaining the Eastern 
style to the present day. All these changes of fashion were introduced only on account of the 
abundance of perfect ordinary birds of these species, which led the emulation of fanciers to seek 
something scarce. In my opinion the way this revolution commenced was not desirable, as the 
only object was to obtain head-marked birds, but with no fixed markings, such as the selected 
imported show birds ; but a spot on the front of the head and one marking on the one side only 
was admired nearly as well as an evenly marked bird ! So it yet continues, because the production 
of the Blondinettes soon after attracted all attention, and no one undertook the thorough perfection 
of the Turbiteens. They only imparted to them the muffs, which all the breeds they fancy must 
possess. One of their strange fashionable introductions at the same revolutionary time was the 
white flights upon all their Owls, as well as the crest ! And you cannot meet now any of the 
old-fashioned wonderful birds in every respect as perfect in shape and colour as the present 
fashion. 
“ Can you imagine all your Turbits and English Owls as good in form and colour as the 
Turbiteens, and still be dissatisfied ? However, such was the case, and hence now we have the 
greatly-admired Turbiteens, whose recent introduction has attracted even more attention than the 
tri-coloured varieties, which they will never equal. 
“ The Turbiteens are in head as good as the best English Owl should be, with round and even 
head, short thick beak, down face, and arched neck, whether crested or plain-headed, rather large 
in size, with excellent and dignified carriage, w r ell-developed frill extending from the upper part of 
the neck down to the full breast, grouse-muffed, and longer muffed legs and feet, white body with 
coloured shoulders, and head markings. But not water-colour ! No, whatever their colour may be, 
whether black, red, or yellow, which are the principal, it is a deep brilliant glossy colour, which, 
unlike the British products called Reds and Yellows, are fast and permanent colours, which neither 
this climate nor the Eastern sun will effect. The evenly head-marked birds are scarce. 
“ There are besides the above-named colours blue, blue-chequered, silver with black and brown 
bars, silver-chequered, yellow-chequered, red-chequered, red-barred, yellow-barred, and very light 
dun. All should possess the head-markings either in one single spot on the forehead, commencing 
from the beak, or with the additional side markings, equal in size whether they are large or small, 
starting from the sides of the beak. They should have no less than seven white flights, and no 
more than ten ; the former is the standard of their originators. The birds possessing large head- 
markings generally have red eyes as in the coloured Owls, but often those with a spot only have 
the dark eye of the Turbit. The most important points amongst the native fanciers are form 
of beak, colour, frill, and muffs, but they entirely overlook dark thighs , which they consider of not 
the slightest detriment to a bird. 
BREEDING TURBITEENS. 
“ The venerable Oriental fanciers keep and treasure not only their perfect specimens, but 
also those which necessarily help to produce the perfect birds. In consequence of this a bronzed- 
black Turbiteen is considered a very valuable stock bird, and if British fanciers will study the 
matching of their coloured specimens, of whatever variety they may be, they are sure to arrive 
at the same result. Here is the system : — 
“A bird produced from a cross of a black and red, whether it is black, bronzed-black, or r^J, 
will do to match either with black or red again. Also a bird bred from a cross of a red and 
yellow, whether red or yellow, will do admirably with either red or yellow again. But birds bred 
