PIGEONS 



249 



high elevation, will remain for hours circling over its home and 

 perhaps occasionally flying away and returning. Tumblers of 

 this type can remain in the air for five or 

 six hours. In flying them for sport the object 

 is to see which flock will remain in the 

 air longest. The tumbling habit was gradu- 

 ally bred out of the high-flying birds, and 

 after a time many of them did not tumble 

 at all. Such birds were then called Tipplers 

 (" tipple " having in some English dialects 

 the meaning of " tumble "). The modern 

 Tippler Pigeon is a bird 

 in which the tendency to 



FIG. 198. English 

 Owl Pigeon l 



FIG. 199. Fnglish Red 

 Trumpeter Pigeon 1 



rise to a great height and remain there for a 



long time has been developed to the utmost, 



as the tendency to return home from great 



distances has been developed in the Flying 



Homer. Performing Tumblers and Tipplers 



are usually bred for performance without re- 

 gard to color, and the colors in a flock of 

 the same breeding may 

 be, and nearly always are, 

 various. Exhibition stocks of Tumblers and 

 Tipplers are bred in many distinct color 

 varieties. 



The Fantail Pigeon. The Fantail Pigeon 

 originated in India. The fan-shaped tail, 

 from which this variety takes its name, was 

 developed by selection to increase the number 

 of the large, straight main tail feathers. 

 Normally a pigeon has from twelve to six- 



FIG. 200. English 



Saddle Trumpeter 



Pigeon 1 



teen of these feathers ; in the ordinary Fantail the number 

 has been increased to twenty-four or twenty-six. Many of the 



1 Photograph from E. R. B. Chapman, Stoneham, Massachusetts. 



