Talaween

The Talaween — a foundation house of the Egyptian Ghuzar pigeon. The name comes from the old practice of flying (nash): a flock needed a core (the ghayya), which was mostly Safi and then Ablaq, but seen from below against the sky such a flock reads as all white and cannot be told from another keeper's. Keepers therefore coloured their flock by adding one or two birds of each other colour — red Ghuzar, Moraqqa', Anbari, black Ghuzar. A note on terminology: the word Ghuzar in Aswad Ghuzar or Ahmar Ghuzar does not mean these alone are the Ghuzar; it distinguishes them from other breeds (a red Ghuzar as against a red Kushk or a Shaqlabaz). The word Ghuzar covers the Talaween, the Safi, the Ablaq and the rest alike.