Qatqati (Otati)

The Qatqati (Otati) house — one of the foundation houses of the Egyptian Ghuzar pigeon, and a bird keepers have loved from the old days to the present. Its history carries a lesson: the Qatqati was originally a single colour, the Sabouni, with a beak of medium length and thickness. When the old masters set out to improve it they crossed the black Ghuzar into it, and from that came the Mahlawi and the Qeshr Samak. They then repeated, refined and fixed the experiment until they had what amounts to a new line — three forms with one character, in which no trace of the cross shows. The old keepers also observed that a black squab thrown by a Qatqati carries a stronger beak than its Qatqati sibling, because it reverts to its origin in the black Ghuzar; and they would neither breed that black bird on nor put it back over the Qatqati, but cull it, to keep the line pure. Four rules follow: crossing has its own principles and must be toward the better, never away from it; a cross yields both good and poor results, and the poor must be culled rather than bred on while the good are built upon and fixed; the work needs skill, patience and constant refinement; and what you learn should be passed on rather than hoarded.