23G 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ March 21, 1870. 



or some other fancier, would kindly inform me whether it is 

 advisable to introduce a decidedly black strain into a mottled 

 one, as I have often doubted the policy of doing so. 



Too much stress is laid on the eyes of Pigeons. I think this 

 point, as far as Trumpeters are conoerned, ought to be al- 

 most altogether thrown overboard. If one can succeed in all 

 the other points, a correct eye, which in the present instance 

 should certainly be an orange one, is almost sure to follow. 



With Mr. Firth's standard of excellence in colour I can 

 hardly agree, though I have an imported Mottle in my pos- 

 session which exactly tallies with his description. He makes 

 a Mottle too dark. My conception of a perfect bird is, tail 

 flights and ground colour a brilliant black ; head and rose finely 

 mottled in about equal proportions of colour, which should 

 extend to form a bib rather larger than the black on a Nun's 

 head and neck ; the mottled colour should develope almost sud- 

 denly into a deep black. From the hood a slight mottling 

 shonld extend down to between the shoulders, but it should be 

 distinct from an oval patch of mottling on each side. The feet 

 shonld be quite black, excepting, perhaps, two small white 

 feathers in each. — Fleur de Lis. 



SKY TUMBLERS. 



Some thirty years ago the flying of Almond Tumblers was a 

 prevalent pastime at Macclesfield, and begat the custom of Sky 

 Tumbler flights, still the notorious habit of the Pigeon fanciers 

 of this town. Flight against flight generated the idea of special 

 birds for flying ; and one enthusiast, in search of new blood, 

 introduced the Tippler Btrain of Tumbler, which, crossed with 

 the Almond Tumbler, proved a success. Another enthusiast, 

 prompted by the cross of Tippler and Almond, added the Bald 

 and Beard, and thus again crossed the Almond and the Tippler 

 and Almond, and this repeated cross again was successful. A 

 stock of birds, " Sky Tumblers," was raised from these crosses 

 of Almond, Tippler, B'lld, and Beard, the stock of the present 

 Macclesfield Tumbler Pigeons. The only variation to this day 

 is the care taken to pair birds as remote in near-kindred as 

 possible, the blood of the ancestral stock yet pervading every 

 cote and flight of the Macclesfield Tumblers. Hence we have 

 the tidy, tight, English Sky Tumblers, called now Macclesfield 

 Tipplers, many of the birds being in colour the same as the far- 

 famed Sky Tumblers of that name. 



My authority for the preceding pedigree, &c, is an old Pigeon 

 flyer of Macclesfield, who speaks from memory and personal 

 experience, and whose story thus given, was communicated to me 

 by " Brown Red," your former correspondent upon Maccles- 

 field birds. , 



I have only to refer to the contribution of Mr. G. Hardy in 

 your Journal of March 3rd, page 175, upou the Roller Pigeon, 

 and your readers have the species, or rather genus, of the 

 Macclesfield and the Birmingham Sky Tumblers at sight — all 

 Tumblers, evidently, though I suspect a continental dash of 

 blood in the Birmingham birds, from the muffed leg common 

 to this variety. The Leicester is the Birmingham bird. — 

 Reader. 



Having noticed an article in the Journal, I beg to forward 

 my humble remarks respecting what your correspondent calls 

 the Sky Tumblers, although I had never known them by that 

 name until I read a letter in your paper on the subject. At 

 Sunderland, in the county of Durham, I kept Tumblers for 

 upwards of eight years, ind during that time I never had a 

 bird in my pen with feathers on its legs. I had three kinds of 

 Tumblers ; I had the Blue Beards which always bred the same 

 colour as themselves— they were my best flyers, but seldom 

 tumbled ; then the Bald pate, which was not equal to the 

 Beard in high flying, but tumbled more ; but the best and 

 cleanest Tumblers were the Variegated, which were of all colours. 

 This breed was the smallest, with the shortest face and beak. 

 If my birds flew an hour, I at that time considered it the best 

 of flying. About eight years ago I came to reside in Glouces- 

 ter, and brought six pairs of birds with me. Acting under the 

 advice of a friend experienced in such matters, I crossed my 

 Beards, Balds, and Variegated, and out of this mixing of dif- 

 ferent breeds the young birds both flew better and tumbled 

 cleaner and nftener than any birds I had ever had before, and 

 some of them roll, too, in first-rate style. 



Your correspondent (see page 19), says he does not know 

 why a bird is called a Roller, except for tumbling. Now, a 

 Roller drops out of the flight suddenly, and rolls over like a 



ball perpendicularly. Ton can see, as it were, a hole through 

 the ball. 



Mr. Thomas, of Gloucester, was my adviser, and I think he 

 is up to the mark in the breeding and training of the Tumbler, 

 this hobby being the whole delight of his leisure hours. Last 

 year and this, he has had two sad losses with his favourites. 

 Last year he had a flight of birds trained almost to his satis- 

 faction, that would fly from four to six hours any fine day. On 

 Good Friday last, about nine o'clock in the morning, he turned 

 this lot loose : away they went, up, up, in the heavens, until 

 he could not discern them, and they never returned, and have 

 not been heard of since. As a local rhymer said the next day — 

 " Poor James a sad misfortune 'a had, 

 Which makes his once gay face look sad, 

 His leisure hours' delight hath flown, 

 Away to upper worlds unknown ; 

 Up, cp, they rose, high and more high, 

 Till out of sight of mortal eye ; 

 And as they mounted, this his cry — 

 Excelsior 1 

 " When day had given place to night, 

 He said, 4 My own, my bonny flight, 

 Hath passed away, they '11 greet my sight 

 No more, no more.' " 



Though this loss rather put " his pipe out," he said he would 

 try again — he had kept those birds so long that they almost 

 seemed part of himself : so with the help of a few from a well- 

 known stock, and the few birds he had left, he managed to 

 raise by the fall of the year a flight of twenty, that surpassed 

 his former flight. I have known this flight do from seven to 

 eight hours day after day in fine weather. Last month, strange 

 to say, this lot went the same road as the last, though next day 

 five out of the flight returned at daybreak. Had he not lost 

 this flight, I do not hesitate to say he could have given a 

 challenge to any fancier in England for length and height of 

 flight or work. Some birds in this flight would roll 20 yards 

 at one effort, Btop themselves beautifully, and regain the flight, 

 repeating this more or less during the whole time of flying. I 

 am sure I never saw one bird in either of these flights crack 

 its wings like a whip, which we consider is a sign of poor 

 breeding and not a sign of strength of flight, which one of your 

 correspondents asserted. 



Of all the Pigeon tribe, for my fancy, give me the Tumbler, 

 which is both pretty to look at and gives one so much amuse- 

 ment when soaring in tho sky. I think if this fancy were 

 more generally known, many gentlemen would find a fund of 

 enjoyment in breeding and training this wonderful little bird. 



I should feel proud to read anything in your valuable paper 

 which would give instruction to intended fanciers, or those 

 who are already fanciers, for without proper management 

 the birds are a bore, but trained skilfully they become a 

 pleasurable pastime. My friend Mr. Thomas says, he does not 

 believe that one fancier out of ten understands the manage- 

 ment of the Tumbler. — J. G. Levison, Ship Can-er, Docks, 

 Gloucester. 



[Tell us how you get your birds to start off and fly high ; 

 several of our correspondents find it difficult to frighten their 

 Pigeons up and make them fly. — Eds.] 



BIRMINGHAM ROLLERS. 

 I am informed by Mr. H. Noje, Secretary to the Birmingham 

 Columbarian Society, that a class of Roller Pigeons is flown in 

 Turkey as high-flying birds, which fly several hours, ascending 

 and descending at intervals, and interwe iving rolls and tumbles 

 with their descent at such intervals. These Turkish Rollers, 

 Mr. Noye says, descend by consecutive rolls, balancing them- 

 selves like a Hawk or Lark between the rolls, as if to see how 

 far they are still from the earth ; and then rolling again and 

 ending in another balance, they close their wings and finish 

 their descent as the fall of a stone, by a dead rapid dive down 

 upon the dovecot roof. Mr. Noye speaks from personal obser- 

 vation, and noticed the peculiarity in these Turkish Rollers, of 

 as many as twenty feathers in the tail, and a double feather in 

 some of the birds, from one quill in the centre of the tail ; the 

 usual tail feathers of our Tumblers being twelve in number 

 only. The centre double tail feather, Mr. Noyfi says, he has 

 also observed in the Birmingham Roller, though be does not 

 say if the Birmingham Roller ever carries more than twelve 

 feathers in the tail — a point worth notice in this inquiry. The 

 Turkish Rollers too, Mr. Noje states, have clear legs and muffed 

 legs interchangeably, as the Birmingham Rollers have like- 

 wise. Mr. Noye does not describe the colour of the Turkish 



