146 FANCY PIGEONS. 



Bokharians may have improved theirs from stock similar to 

 what we had before. 



The Trumpeter is certainly a very high-class, original 

 pigeon, but, for some reason, not a general favourite, though 

 no one will deny that it has many beautiful properties. The 

 reason that it is not more generally fancied and bred, is, doubt- 

 less, the fact that it has nothing in its conformation very 

 abnormal — like the Pouter, Carrier, or Turbit, all of which 

 birds present great difl&culty in breeding towards an ideal 

 standard — while its peculiarities are almost entirely those of 

 feathering, of such a fixed type, that it presents little scope 

 for competition. Were as many fanciers to employ their time 

 in breeding Trumpeters as Pouters, there would be twenty 

 of the former for one of the latter approaching perfection. 

 Fanciers know this, and therefore the Trumpeter is left in a few 

 hands, regarded more as a curiosity than as a fancier's pigeon. 

 Supposing, with all its fine properties, the Short-faced Mottled 

 Tumbler's standard of feather were to be fixed for the Trum- 

 peter, it would then present difiiculties which any fancier 

 might be proud in overcoming; but this standard is not only 

 full of difiiculties, but is a standard open, above all others, to 

 fraud. The Germans have for a long time bred Trumpeters 

 to Turbit and other markings, though in doing so they have 

 lost quality in the more important parts of the breed. Brent 

 and others have written of the difficulty there is in preserving 

 the voice and rose of the Trumpeter when it is crossed; 

 but though it doubtless takes a long time to recover either, 

 it can be done, as in the case of the Altenburg Trumpeter, 

 which I shall afterwards describe, and which is not inferior in 

 voice to the pure breed itself. Could all the peculiarities of 

 the breed be well-retained, in addition to well-defined specific 

 markings — such as white, with coloured shoulders — the Trum- 

 peter would rank higher in the fancy than at present, when 

 many care not how badly their birds may be mottled, or even 

 splashed, so long as they are good in rose and other points. 



