118 LEAKNING TO TUMBLE. [CHAP. iv. 



usual average, by the same law of nature the best of 

 despots which has prevented the stature of the Prus- 

 sians from becoming altogether colossal. Tumblers have 

 been bred with their beaks so small that they cannot 

 feed their own young, and with their frames so com- 

 pact, that they cannot fly to the top of their breeder's 

 bedstead. They are called Tumblers, only because if 

 they could fly they would tumble. The variation of the 

 species Tumbler has been pushed to its utmost possible 

 limits. Were the limit exceeded, the bird could not be 

 propagated, if it could exist, at all. 



Tumbling in the air, on the part of good unsophisti- 

 cated Tumblers, is to themselves an act of pleasure. 

 They never do it, unless they are in good health and 

 spirits : their best performances are after being let out 

 from a short confinement. The young Tumbler, as soon 

 as it has gained sufficient strength of wing, finds out by 

 some chance that it can tumble ; it is delighted at the 

 discovery, and goes on practising, till at last it executes 

 the revolution with satisfaction to itself a feat the 

 French have not performed of late years. Often and 

 often the young Tumbler may be seen trying to get over, 

 but cannot nicely; the same firmness of muscle and deci- 

 sion of mind are required to execute that coup, which em- 

 power the leading men at Astley's to throw their fortieth 

 or fiftieth somerset backwards, and enable the premiere 

 danseuse at the opera to drop from the air, and stand 

 for a second or two in an impossible attitude on tiptoe. 

 Beginners are incapable of such excellence. In short, 

 the Treatise sums up all with an enthusiasm which 

 distances criticism and overwhelms cavil. 



" The Almond Tumbler is a very small Pigeon, with 

 a short body, short legs, a full chest, a thin neck, a very 



