342 FANCY PIGEONS. 



any Part thereof ; and on Conviction, a further Eeward of TEN 

 GUINEAS to be paid by Mr. PAKE, No. 103, Holborn-Hill. 



Or if any Person will give Mr. PAEE a Hint respecting the said 

 Eobbery, his Name shall be kept secret, and frilly satisfied for such 

 Information. 



It will have been noticed that Mr. Jayne mentioned the 

 African Owl as a progenitor of the Short-faced Tumbler. 

 The first pair of these beautiful pigeons known to the pre- 

 sent generation was exhibited in 1858; but that they were 

 known in this country in the last century I quite believe, 

 and Mr. Jayne had, no doubt, very good reasons for his 

 statement, Mr. Morey probably having mentioned such birds 

 as part of the composition of the Short-face. 



Having dealt with the history of the Short-faced Tumbler, 

 so far as I have been able to trace it, at some length, I 

 now come to a consideration of the bird as it exists. The 

 almond-feathered Short-face first demands attention, both 

 because it has always been considered the representative 

 of its race, and because it best answers the standard of 

 perfection laid down. It has always been a matter of specu- 

 lation, from Moore downwards, why this pigeon got the name 

 of Almond Tumbler, and it has generally been supposed 

 that it was so called from the almond nut- coloured feathers 

 which compose its ground tint. The nut itself, as well as 

 the shell, both inside and outside, in all stages from ripe 

 to rotten, have been fixed on by authorities as "the reason 

 why." I could never see why only one of the colours in this 

 bird should give it its name, and think that a whole-feathered 

 yellow pigeon would be more appropriately called an Almond. 

 I incline to the belief that the name is not derived from 

 either the nut or its shell, but that, as suggested by Brent, 

 the word almond is a corruption of Allemand, the French 

 word signifying German, and that almond-feathered pigeons 

 of some sort, brought from France under the name of 

 Allemand Pigeons, originated the name. Such coloured 



