318 FANCY PIGEONS. 



many of which are much larger and coarser pigeons than 

 the neat, trim, clean-legged Tumblers. 



Rollers are of many colours, such as whole-feathers ; 

 mottles ; saddles, marked exactly the same as the Magpie ; 

 white sides, or with white wing coverts and under body when 

 through the moult, but self-coloured as nestlings; badges, 

 which are all coloured, except with some white sprinkling 

 about the head, white flights, and white leg- feathering from 

 the hocks down ; grizzles, of various shades, and oddities of 

 all kinds of uneven markings. Rollers may be smooth or 

 feather-legged. Many are heavily hocked, with feathers 

 on the feet Sin. to 4in. long. They are much fancied in 

 Birmingham and the Midland counties, where great numbers 

 of them are kept, and, when bred for good shape, colour, 

 and markings, they realise considerable prices for show pui'- 

 poses. I have seen Tumblers imported from the Continent 

 with much of the character of these pigeons. 



The Mottled Tumbler Pigeon. 



Mottled flying Tumblers for the show-pen are either black, 

 red, or yellow, though I have occasionally seen duns. The 

 mottling of these birds should either be a rose pinion on the 

 shoulders, composed of single white feathers, no two of which 

 should be in contact, or run together, or the same marking 

 accompanied by what is known as a " handkerchief back," 

 which is a Y-shaped figure on the back, between the shoulders, 

 also composed, when right, of single, separated white feathers; 

 while the mottling of the rose pinion is on the wing coverts, 

 the handkerchief back is on the scapular feathers. Some 

 admire the rose wing alone, others the compound marking. 

 The chief defect in Mottles is an excess of white feathers, 

 and, when these are not absolutely in patches, weeding can 

 transform a bird nearly right into perfection. Removing a 

 few superfluous white feathers is not so difficult as supplying 

 some to a wing rather undermarked; but there are men who 



