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Hood and Top Feather |
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By Clint Robertson |
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These two features combined are worth 20 points in our standard. I find these features are often overlooked by some fanciers because they are features which cannot properly be accessed in profile but rather take more care to evaluate properly. The hood refers to the feathers which sweep up from behind the head and from the back of the neck originating in the center of the upper Mane. These feathers should radiate upwards from the back of the neck and then arch forward directly over the top of the head hugging the head fairly tightly and coming to a sudden stop forming a perfect straight even line at the eye of the bird spanning the top of the head from eye to eye. This feature can only be properly viewed by looking down from above. The stay feathers on either side of the upper mane must then gently roll in from side to side giving the hood an enhanced fit and tidy appearance. The hood must not point to either side ( wry hood setting) or have a tendency to radiate upwards ( erect hood ) but rather the feathers must radiate forward towards the front of the bird. At the same time the hood feathers should not continue to roll and come down too tightly against the top of the birds head. The actual feathers coming back off of the Jacobins head on a well structured bird offer the proper support to keep the hood slightly up off of the top of the birds head. Sometimes we see that the feathers coming off of the back of the Jacobins head will push just part of the hood back resulting in a split hood. Trimming of the feathers of the hood, or of the feathers on the head, to alter appearance is not acceptable and should result in disqualification at a show. Top feather refers to the length or amount of feather above the Jacobins head. These feathers consist of the feathers from the upper Mane and Hood and the top directly refers to the length, volume and overall wealth of feather in this area. A Jacobin should have as much feather up over the head as possible but never more than the birds can display or present properly because at that point the feather becomes a liability rather than an asset. It is all about balance and fit. You can nicely evaluate top feather by looking at a Jacobin from the front at eye level where you can see how much top he has as well as from above to see how deeply the head is nestled in the feather formation. Email: clint@jacobins.ca |
