315 THE TUMBLER. 



by selection from the immense numbers kept in every large 

 town. I have seen good clean-legged Tumblers with shell 

 crests, and also peak -headed ones. I once bred several peaked 

 yellow whole feathers from a pair of smooth-headed ones. I 

 could only account for this variation as a natural sport. 



The Tumbler is found in all the principal colours, such as 

 whole blue, silver, black, red, yellow, dun, and white; and in 

 such infinite variety of Mottles, Grizzles, and Splashes, that 

 it would be no difficult matter to put up a hundred matched 

 pairs, any one of which might easily be distinguished from 

 the rest. Birds are matched together for their excellence 

 in tumbling, no matter what colour they are, and there- 

 fore produce a great variety of curiously- coloured and marked 

 offspring. It is generally from Tumblers so matched up for 

 their powers of tumbling that the House and Ground Tumblers 

 are produced, and, accordingly, many of them have little in 

 their appearance, from a fancy point of view, to recommend 

 them in the way of feather. Such are out of place in the 

 show-pen, however, for which the colours must be pure and 

 good to enable them to compete successfully. 



Among those races of Tumblers of the best quality, as 

 regards performances in the air, which have been kept to 

 feather to a certain extent, I may mention the red Mottles, 

 not marked so exactly as show Mottles ought to be, but mottled 

 over the whole wing coverts, and often with white feathers 

 on the head and neck; black and yellow Mottles of the same 

 character; blacks with white flight feathers, white beaks, and 

 reddish eye wattle; whites ticked on the neck with red; and, 

 lastly, almond-feathered ones. I have known fanciers confine 

 themselves to some of these breeds, and, by careful selection 

 of such as were good flyers and performers, establish flights 

 which would breed very true to feather. 



Exhibition Tumblers. 



Show Tumblers are sub-divided into Self-colours, Mottles, 



