75 



thin necked, spindle-beaked (*) and a short button head, and the irides 

 of the eye of a bright pearl colour, 



185. — The Dutch Tumbler is much of the same make, but larger ; often 

 feathered legged, and more jowlter-headed with a thin flesh or skin round 

 the eye, not unlike a very sheer dragoon ; some people don't esteem them 

 on this account, though I have known very good ones of the Dutch breed, 

 not any ways inferior to what they call the English. Others have re- 

 marked that they are apt to tumble too much, and to lose ground, that is, 

 sink beneath the rest of the flight, which is a very great fault, but I have 

 observed the same by the English, and am apt to believe that most of the 

 extraordinary feathers have been produced by mixing with the Dutch 

 breed ; for it is generally observed that the English Tumblers are chiefly 

 black, blue, or white. 



1 86. — This Pigeon aflbrds a very great variety of colours in its plumage, 

 as blacks, blues, whites, reds, yellows, duns, silvers, and, in short, a plea- 

 sant mixture of all these colours with the white. But amongst all, there 

 is a mixture of three clours, vulgarly called an Almond, (f) perhaps from 



doubt the smallest Pigeon that the Fancier takes into consideration. The Chinese 

 Pigeon very likely a Fancier never saw ; if he did, what would he make of it in the 

 end. Mr, Moore, in Paragraph 212, writing of the Jacobine Pigeon, states, ''is, if 

 true, the smallest of all Pigeons." I have not any doubt the Jack was a very pretty 

 Pigeon in Moore's time, one hundred and twenty-three years ago ; it has, at the pre- 

 sent time very much degenerated, or the incomparable Tumbler, possessing the five 

 properties, very much improved — it is certain, one or the other. In Moore's Work you 

 will often fall in with the description of Button Head. What a button was in Moore's 

 day I will not presume to say. Do as I am doing ; put your finger upon the top but- 

 ton of the coat you have on. Is this the shape of head you are desirous of obtaining — ■ 

 fit to put a muffin or crumpet board on ? Would you not rejoice to obtain the Carrier's 

 head like it ; the head and beak ought to be perfectly straight across as is the button : 

 put your finger and thumb around the button. Is this the head you are desirous of 

 obtaining for the Tumbler ? It follows the button head is equally as applicable to the 

 Carrier as to the Tumbler. It is a bad name to express a round-headed Pigeon ; you 

 had much better use the phrase, ''round as a marble." I Lope, however many may 

 follow me, not any of you will make use of the term — Button-head I consider 

 it inapplicable to the idea it was intended to convey. Some country Fanciers use the 

 term to express the round-headed Tumbler ; others call them bullet-headed. I think 

 this a bad name, because I have seen bullets a bad shape, and consider them home- 

 made ; the name I like best is globular or round, 



* 184, (Mayor, p, 68.)— A short "spindle" beak. 



+ 186. (Eaton.) — Mr. Moore presents the G-entlemen of the Pigeon Fancy with a very 

 small account of the splendid Almond Tumbler ; it may be he was not an Almond Tumbler 

 Fancier. I am of opinion the Almond Tumbler had not arrived to the excellence or 

 standard it had acquired when Mayor wrote on the Almond Tumbler, exactly thirty 

 years after, I cannot help thinking, from the account given by Mayor, compared to 

 the account given by Moore ; who, for all in all, as a Fancier, I style or call the pre- 

 eminent of Fanciers, There must have been great spirit among the Gentlemen of the 

 Almond Fancy during this thirty years. It has been stated fifty or sixty years ago the 

 Gentlemen of the Fancy had better birds than they have at the present time, that the 

 Almond Tumbler was a more perfect bird than it is now, which I do not believe. If 

 the question was put to me. What is your opinion with regard to Tumblers, Camera, or 

 Pouters, whether there is anything alive in the present day equal to what has been seen, 

 taking into consideration the many generations of Pigeon Fanciers who have shewn, 

 now gone to their long homes ? I should conscientiously answer, No ! Believing there 

 has been better birds than can now be seen alive. The Fancy, like everything else, 

 ebbs and flows, in some generations there are more ardent and enthusiastic Fanciers 



