oy, in China,
the skin of a Fantail belonging to a breed known to have been imported
from Java. It was coloured in a peculiar manner, unlike any European
Fantail, and, for a Fantail, had a remarkably short beak. Although a
good bird of the kind, it had only 14 tail-feathers; but Mr. Swinhoe
has counted in other birds of this breed from 18 to 24 tail-feathers.
From a rough sketch sent to me, it is evident that the tail is not so
much expanded or so much upraised as in even second-rate European
Fantails. The bird shakes its neck like our Fantails. It had a
well-developed oil-gland. Fantails were known in India, as we shall
hereafter see, before the year 1600; and we may suspect that in the
Java Fantail we see the breed in its earlier and less improved
condition.

RACE VI.--TURBIT AND OWL. (Moeven-Taube: Pigeons a cravate.)

_Feathers divergent along the front of the neck and breast; beak very
short, vertically rather thick; oesophagus somewhat enlarged._

[Illustration: Fig. 22.--African Owl.]

Turbits and Owls differ from each other slightly in the shape of the
head, in the former having a crest, and in the curvature of the beak,
but they may be here conveniently grouped together. These pretty birds,
some of which are very small, can be recognised at once by the feathers
irregularly diverging, like a frill, along the front of the neck, in
the same manner, but in a less degree, as along the back of the neck in
the Jacobin. This bird has the remarkable habit of continually, and
momentarily inflating the upper part of the oesophagus, which causes a
movement in the frill. {149} When the oesophagus of a dead bird was
inflated, it was seen to be larger than in other breeds, and not so
distinctly separated from the crop. The Pouter inflates both its true
crop and oesophagus; the Turbit inflates in a much less degree the
oesophagus alone. The beak of the Turbit is very short, being .28 of an
inch shorter than that of the rock-pigeon, proportionally with the size
of their bodies; and in some owls brought by Mr. E. Vernon Harcourt
from Tunis, it was even shorter. The beak is vertically thicker, and
perhaps a little broader, in proportion to that of the rock-pigeon.

{150}

RACE VII.--TUMBLERS. (Tuemmler, or Burzel-Tauben: Culbutants.)

_During flight, tumble backwards; body generally small; beak generally
shor