“Scatliff Strain” of Turbit
The history of the production of the “Scatliff strain” of turbit affords a good example of the kind of difficulties that confront the breeder.
Pigeon fanciers require that the ideal turbit shall have, among other things, an unbroken “sweep,” that is to say the line of the profile from the tip of the beak to the back of the head should be the arc of a circle. As a rule this line is broken by the overgrowth of the wattle at the base of the beak. Mr Scatliff, however, has succeeded in breeding a strain which possesses the required description of profile.
“In the year 1895,” writes Mr H. P. Scatliff on page 25 of The Modern Turbit, “I visited Mr Houghton’s lofts and purchased three or four extra stout and short-beaked stock birds. . . . The following year I mated one of these to one of my own black hens, and reared one of the most successful show birds ever bred, viz. ‘Champion Ladybird,’ a black hen. . . . Most of the leading judges and many turbit breeders remarked upon this hen’s wonderful profile, which seemed to improve as she got older instead of getting worse, as is usual in rather coarse-wattled birds. I, too, had remarked this, and it opened my eyes to a point in turbit breeding which I had never heard mentioned by any turbit judges or breeders, and which I believe I am now pointing out for the first time in print, viz. that the feathers over her beak wattle which formed her front grew from the top and right to the front of her wattle, and not from slightly behind, as in almost every other turbit of her day; thus, as the wattle developed and grew coarser, the front became more developed, and made her head larger without in any way spoiling the sweep of the profile.
“The same year ‘Ladybird’ was bred I bred eight others from the same pair, and with one exception all turned out to be hens. There was only one other hen, however (a dun), that had this same point, but in a lesser degree than ‘Ladybird,’ and from these two hens nearly all my blacks, and several of my blues are descended.”
A TURBIT BELONGING TO MR. H. P. SCATLIFF
Mr Scatliff, having “spotted” this point, looked about him for another bird having the peculiarity, with the object, if possible, of fixing the same in his strain. He discovered this point in a pigeon belonging to Mr Johnston of Hull, and purchased the bird for £20. But it died in the following spring without producing for Mr Scatliff a single young one. The next year Scatliff found that a bird belonging to a Mr Brannam had the required peculiarity and so purchased him for £20. But that cock, too, died before anything was bred from him. Nothing daunted, Scatliff found that another of Brannam’s cocks displayed the same peculiarity, so purchased him in 1899 for £15, but he also died before the year was out. Meanwhile Scatliff had, by mating up “Ladybird” with the most likely of his own cocks, succeeded in producing one or two young cocks with the desired point. By breeding these with their mother “Ladybird” and their offspring again with “Ladybird,” Scatliff eventually succeeded in breeding some turbits, both blacks and duns, with the required peculiarity fully developed, but not before he had spent a further sum of £55 on two other cocks, both of which died before they could be mated with the famous “Ladybird.” However, amid all his misfortunes, Scatliff informs us that he bought one bird, by name “Amazement,” which did assist him in fixing his strain. Thus Scatliff spent considerably over £100 in purchases, and took eight years fixing the peculiarity in question. Had “Ladybird” been a flower, the peculiarity could probably have been fixed in one generation by self-fertilisation.
This furnishes an excellent example of the trouble which breeders will take, and the expense to which they will go in order to produce a desired result. Nevertheless, it appears to be the fashion for scientific men to decry the work of the breeder.
Let us now pass on to consider the cases of mutations which are known to have occurred among animals.