JOUENAL OF HOBTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GABDEXEE. 



[ July i, 1372. 



able attention prior to being sent to the Exhibition. The hens 

 proved the cup-winners, and "were birds snch as are but rarely 

 seen. Even in the Selling classes, the Spanish hens were con- 

 spicuous for th?ir numbers, and equally so for excellence. In 

 the Black or Brown Eed Game class, specimens well shown 

 from Nantwich and Melton Mowbray were successful, and Mr. 

 Brierley's Eed Piles were in first-rate order for competition. 

 "We can but rarely inspect so large and perfect a collection of 

 Hamburghs as was shown, all five varieties being sent in ex- 

 cellent show trim. The Golden-spangled and the Black ones 

 were conspicuously creditable. Polands and Malays were very 

 short in numbers, but of the highest merit as to purity of breed 

 and feather. The Creve-Cceurs were by far the best shown of 

 the French breeds ; and the same may be said of the Blacks 

 among the JBantams. Afewmost meritorious Japanese Bantams 

 were to be found in both the Variety, Selling, and Bantam 

 classes. Among the chickens, the winning Dark Brahmas, Buff 

 Cochins, Grey Dorkings, and Brown Eed Game were well ma- 

 tured and truly feathered, and gave good proof, particularly in 

 adverse seasons like the present year, what can be done by care- 

 ful and constant attention. 



Geese were shown in the most indifferent feather, but Mr. 

 LythaLVs American Turkeys were in their greatest splendour. 

 Aylesbury Ducks were not by any means a weak class, bnt the 

 Eouens were not in season for the show pen. A large variety 

 of fancy Ducks competed for the silver cream-jug offered as a 

 premium to this class. Of course a considerable proportion 

 were out of colour, but the WhistlingDucks, Euddy Shell Ducks, 

 and Garganeys were in lovely condition. 



Perhaps in fowls of this year there has rarely, if ever, been 

 exhibited so early in the season, pens so praiseworthy as Mr. 

 Lingwood's Dark Brahmas and Mr Tomlinson's Buff Cochins. 



Although from the unusual stress of weather great losses 

 might fairly have been anticipated, thanks to good management 

 we are told " all the deaths that took place were one fowl, a 

 fancy Duck, and a Pigeon." When it is recollected how unfa- 

 vourable was the weather from the very time Messrs. Hewitt 

 and Teebay commenced their judging to nearly the hour of 

 repacking the birds for their homeward journey, it certainly 

 reflects much credit on those experienced amateurs who person- 

 ally carried out the whole proceedings. We published the list 

 of awards last week. 



[We shall give next week a detailed report of the Pigeons, o 1 

 which no less than 962 were exhibited. — Eds.] 



SCOTCH AIR TUMBLERS. 



In my last communication I promised that I would in a future 

 letter endeavour to show " Wiltshire Sector "that his taste 

 does not really differ so much from mine as his remarks implied. 

 He evidently imagines that my chief fancy is for house Tumblers, 

 hut if he examines my first letter carefully he will find that I 

 was compelled to adopt them more through the force of cir- 

 cumstances than from any real love I had for them at the time. 

 Of the two classes, the house and Air Tumbler, I now hold, 

 and always held, the Air Tumbler in the highest esteem — not 

 the high-flying Tumbler, however, which merely tumbles, but 

 the bird that performs up to a certain standard, which I shall 

 endeavour to describe in the course of this paper. I would 

 now, however, almost as soon think of breeding a modern Carrier 

 irom a Dragoon as I would think of breeding Air Tumblers to 

 please me without the aid of the house Tumbler. I wish it, 

 however, to be distinctly understood that I write only as an in- 

 dividual fancier, not as in any way representing other breeders, 

 hut simply describing my own views, tastes, and experiences. 



The breed of Tumblers which " Wiltshire Eector " possessed 

 when in Scotland some twenty years ago, is what we call the 

 " Common Tumbler," and is undoubtedly the progenitor of not 

 only the Air Tumbler of which I now write, but also of the 

 house Tumbler, and so closely do they all resemble each other 

 that it is impossible to tell the one breed from the other without 

 seeing them perform. Indeed, the common Tumbler is the 

 Air Tumbler proper, but from the vast superiority of some birds 

 bred from the house Tumblers which turn out high flyers, over 

 the usual quality of the common birds, such have been named 

 Air Tumblers to distinguish them from their more plebeian 

 brethren. 



The common Tumbler is still abundant all over the country, 

 and is an exceedingly hardy breed, many of them being kept in 

 badly constructed lockyers, often placed against an exposed wall ; 

 and I have seen very good birds which had to forage for a con- 

 siderable portion of their food. They are seldom trained to fly 

 long, but being of a hearty disposition they take frequent short 

 flights, and then mostly tumble moderately. 



The common house and Air Tumblers are all pearl-eyed, gener- 

 ally small, dapper and trim, and are to be found of almost every 

 colour. Eed, or red-and-white, however, is the most common, 

 and I think the best birds are generally to be found of this colour, 

 at least I have known two first-class house Tumblers of red or 

 red-and-white colour for one of any other colour-. Blacks and 



Yellows probably come next in numerical strength. Almonds 

 are not scarce ; and Blues of sound colour, although not so 

 numerous, are still found. Irregularly marked Balds andBeards 

 are often bred in a most unaccountable way, and I have even 

 seen very well marked birds of those markings appear where the 

 pedigree was known for several generations, and in which no 

 bird of the marking could be traced. Whites with pearl eyes 

 I have seen exhibited, but whether they would have continued 

 pure in colour after their next moult in the hands of a purchaser 

 I cannot say. There would, however, be no difficulty inbreeding 

 the colour, as there is an abundance of very light-marked birds 

 to be found which, if persistently matched together, would soon 

 produce pure white, and the bulLeye I should be afraid. The 

 three classes are also alike in their mode of tumbling, being all 

 Tumblers not Boilers — that is, tumbling in single turns ; birds 

 which roll are no doubt occasionally bred, but such are not 

 characteristic of the breeds, and are not esteemed valuable. 



In my last letter I endeavoured to show that all tumbling is a 

 purely involuntary action — in fact, a disease if you will, but only 

 a disease to the same extent as the huge crop of the Pouter, the 

 wattle of the Carrier, or any other point in a fancy Pigeon, which 

 in no way interferes with the general health of the bird, and 

 which the fancier strives to cultivate to the highest possible 

 degree of excellence. For tumbling alone, in some instances 

 amongst house Tumblers the faculty has reached a point which 

 can scarcely be improved upon, but as an immense crop does 

 not make a perfect Pouter unless combined with other qualities, 

 nor a huge wattle a model Carrier, so in the case of a perfect 

 tumbling bird I should wish other qualities combined with that 

 of mere tumbling. My idea of what would constitute a perfect 

 performing bird would be one which would tumble either inside 

 or out, high or low, once in about every 3 feet of flight, with the 

 regularity of clockwork ; the tumbles to be single, clean — that 

 is right over, head cruder, no twisting, quick as a flash of light- 

 ning, and to be no impediment to progress, but allowing the bird 

 to soar, and last of all, and by no means least, the performance 

 never to be of doubtful fulfilment, but certain to come off on 

 every occasion. Such a bird is purely ideal, as I confess I never 

 saw one which met all the requirements. The nearest approach 

 to it coming under my observation, however, is the Air Tumbler 

 bred from house Tumblers whose performances and general 

 characteristics were so ably described in your Journal a number 

 of years ago by the late Mr. Brent. Good performers of this 

 class should tumble at a rate of not less than thirty times per 

 minute; if they can do a greater number all the better, provided 

 they can keep in the flight, but I would rather have a bird doing 

 forty tumbles a minute, taking flights of half an hour, than one 

 which could do sixty times per minute, but only be able to keep 

 in the air about that length of time altogether. 



The tumbling should also be regular, not a great deal at one 

 time and nothing at another, and as quick as thought ; and it is 

 as a test of these points that I think there is nothing to equal 

 the moment hand of the watch, for a really good bird when once 

 fairly settled to its work should be so steady that if the eye be 

 fixed on it for any one minute the result obtained by the watch 

 should give a fair average of what he will do throughout the 

 whole time of flight. The watch is also most useful to train the 

 eye, and to give uniformity of ideas amongst different breeders, 

 for unless a bird make the sommersault with very great rapidity 

 it will never count very weE by time. Indeed, I have seen birds 

 which seem to be tumbling without the slightest intermission, 

 and falling out of the flight seemingly through perfect excess of 

 it, and yet when timed these would not exceed twenty times a 

 minute, but we find birds which do forty times and more in the 

 minute without falling out of the flight in the slightest, farther 

 than taking care to keep the inner circle. The former bird, 

 however, loses time in the little extra sweep which it gives when 

 going over, which also tends to bring it down out of the flight. 

 I do not think it likely that Scotch Tumblers fly so high as some 

 do in the south, at least I have never seen any of them go out of 

 sight on a clear day, unless over the tops of the surrounding 

 houses, before getting settled into their proper flight ; neither 

 would I desire them to do so, as I look on high-flying as only 

 useful to enable the tumbling to be observed, and if the birds 

 themselves disappeared their performance could scarcely be 

 seen. 



I find, however, that birds which can do from thirty to fifty 

 tumbles a minute go quite high enough for my ideas, for al- 

 though I live in the centre of a manufacturing town where 

 houses are high and close, they soar sufficiently to enable me to 

 watch their movements without having my view of them much 

 interrupted, and although I am quite the reverse of being short- 

 sighted, they go high enough to make it difficult to note the per- 

 formances of each individual bird, unless where a considerable 

 variety of marking and colouring exists ; and for this reason, 

 where birds are kept merely for their tumbling, I think that it is 

 not only allowable but desirable to keep a number of irregularly 

 marked or splashed birds as weU as birds of as many colours as 

 possible, and I have little doubt it is because fanciers of former 

 times have found the same thing necessary, that we have now 



