343 THE SHORT-FACED TUMBLER. 



Frencli Tumbler Pigeons were described by Boitard and 

 Corbie, in 1824, as Pigeons Culbutant Savoyard. 



Taking the Almond as tbe representative of all tbe 

 Short-faced Tumblers, it may be described as a very small 

 pigeon, only larger than the African Owl, and generally said 

 to have five properties — Feather, carriage, head, beak, and 

 eye. 



Feather. — A standard Almond is one having its twelve 

 primary tail feathers, and its primary flights, whether nine 

 or ten-a-side, composed of the three colours — black, red, and 

 yellow. A bird with nine-a-side, all standard feathers, is 

 preferable, in my opinion, to one with ten-a-side having 

 only nine in each wing standard feathers, because it is full 

 flighted; but if the bird with ten-a-side had only the shortest 

 flight in each wing out in colour, it would be much nearer 

 perfection than if any of its other flight feathers were wrong 

 in colour. There are, however, so many other properties in 

 the Almond, that it is unlikely such close competition will 

 often arise ; but where it is a case of showing standard 

 birds only, the whole of the flight feathers, whether nine or 

 ten-a-side, must show the three colours. The ground colour 

 of the Almond should be of as deep and rich a yellow as can 

 be got ; but it is generally either mealy and spotty in colour, 

 or of a reddish colour which can neither be called red nor 

 yellow — like unpolished mahogany wood. As the most diffi- 

 cult thing to produce is the bright yellow ground — which, 

 indeed, has been seen but seldom — this is the point of most 

 consequence ; in fact, however good in head and beak a bird 

 may be, it is not a real Almond if it has not the ground 

 colour. If the bird does not come out of the nest of a good 

 ground colour on back, wings, and rump, it can never attain to 

 it later in life. The ground colour being right, it must be 

 pencilled over with black of as intense a deepness as possible, 

 not in any particular pattern, but to show well as a whole. 

 This pencilling ought to increase with the autumnal moults 



