112 FANCY PIGEONS. 



its neck, not unlike a horse's mane ; it is clean-footed and 

 legged, and always black or blue pied. Wben it is sala- 

 cious, it rises over its hen, and turns round three or four 

 times, flapping its wings, then reverses, and turns as many 

 the other way." 



The Turner, he says, "is in many respects like the Finnikin, 

 except that, when it is salacious, and plays to the female, it 

 turns only one way, whereas the other turns both ; it has no 

 tuft on the hinder part of the head, neither is it snake- 

 headed." 



Brent says he only saw one pair of Ringbeaters, which were 

 at a pigeon dealer's in Coblentz. They were common-looking 

 birds, with peaked crowns and red and white plumage. Their 

 peculiar movement and circling flight were described to him, 

 and he noticed that the vanes were beaten off the ends of 

 their flight feathers. 



Boitard and Corbie describe the Pigeons Tournants as stronger 

 than Tumblers, stocking-legged, generally blue chequered, red, 

 or pearl white in colour, marked with a pure white horseshoe 

 mark on the back. "Whatever may be the space they are 

 shut up in, they ascend to the ceiling, then descend, de- 

 scribing circles, first to right, then to left, absolutely like a 

 bird of prey, which hovers, and then chases from high in the 

 air." They say amateurs have discarded them on account of 

 their quarrelsome and jealous disposition, which causes much 

 mischief in the aviary. 



The Pigeon Lillois Claquart, or Lille clapper, is a variety 

 of the Lille Pouter, which Boitard and Corbie have confounded 

 with the Turner. " It makes a noise with its wings when 

 commencing to fly, like a clapper ; hence its name." This is 

 a usual thing with half-bred Pouters, and I have often seen 

 such kept as decoys for stray pigeons. 



Brent could find nothing in German books regarding the 

 Ringbeater; but, in the last edition of Neumeister, I find 

 a description of this curious breed, from which it appears 



