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Bant — say three-quarter-inch-faced —Tumblers (I am not alluding to short-faced Tum- 

 blers), which you have a right to expect would tumble, do not tumble at all. How 

 often you observe a flight of Tumblers, say twenty or more, how seldom or few tumble 

 at all ; you may observe one or two. I cannot think what has come to the Tumblers 

 as regards tumbling. Wlien I was a boy, I recollect Jemmy Gilham having a beauti- 

 ful flight of Black-beards ; I have watched them many times, and been greatly de- 

 lighted with their tumbling. On one occasion, going to Wales, the coach stopped in 

 the town for the passengers to take dinner and change horses ; being on the outside of 

 the coach, just at this time three flights of Tumblers were started. Whether the Fan- 

 ciers had caught glimpse of a stray, only being a bird of passage myself, I cannot say ; 

 I must confess I was astounded at these flights of Tumblers. They appeared to hover 

 about in a small space, scarce like flying, like as you have seen white moths in fine 

 summer dusky nights hovering among Poplar trees. Their tumbling I can only com- 

 pare to a toy you hold in your fingers which tumbles beautifully. It may be called for 

 ought I know, a Chinese tumbling toy. I liave not any doubt but these Pigeons were 

 Dutch Pollers. I went without my dinner. I would not mind going without it again 

 for another such sight. A short time since a Fancier strongly recommended me to 

 buy twenty Dutch Pollers from a celebrated strain ; I did so ; not that I wanted them 

 myself ; but recollecting how many Gentlemen Fanciers had written to me stating their 

 Tumblers would not tumble, I was very choice of these twenty Dutch Rollers, dividing 

 them among Fanciers, letting one Fancier have one, others two, and one Fancier, who 

 deeply regretted his Tumblers would not tumble, and who was very desirous they should, 

 I let have four. Mr. MooRE, paragraph 135, says the Dutch Tumbler is much of the 

 same make, but larger ; often feather-legged, and more jowlter-headed, &c. ; that most 

 of the extraordinary feathers have been produced by mixing with the Dutch breed. 

 I should have thought, from this account, the Dutch Poller Tumbler, jowlter headed, 

 its head would have appeared like the head of a first-rate Barb, but, on the contrary, 

 appears no better than a common house Pigeon, or Skinnum, its feather anyhow, as 

 though left to themselves for the last twenty years to match themselves, and they are 

 extraordinary bad feathers. I have tried to find out the cause of these common-look- 

 ing birds tumbling so much. I have reasoned on cause and efi'ect, and an idea struck 

 me, going back to barbarous times and among barbarians, they observed some birds 

 could swim and others could not ; it may have bothered them as the Dutch Roller 

 bothers us to their tumbling. The barbarians could not discover why some birds swam 

 and others not. On examining the birds in their way, they might say the only difler- 

 ence they could perceive was a kind of skin attaching the toes ; civilized society would 

 call it web-footed. The only cause I can give for the Dutch Poller tumbling so much 

 is their being feather-legged. We witness the effect, the cause we do not know any 

 more of than how an Antwerp finds its way home six hundred miles (Mr. Brent 

 gives a good account even of this). At times, watching my feeders flying, I have 

 observed a few tumble ; I have kept my eye on them till they aHghted, and observed 

 they were more or less feather-legged. They may have been crossed with the Dutch 

 Roller. I acknowledge some clean or wire-legged birds, as they are called, will tum- 

 ble. Formerly, the Dutch Tumbler may have been a pretty bird ; it appears to me 

 they have been greatly neglected, like our Baldheads and Beards ; the Short-faced 

 nearly lost, with the exception of a few Fanciers who have them. When MooRE, 123 

 years ago, wrote on the Dutch Tumbler, it was a pretty or pleasant bird, and much 

 crossed with our Tumblers ; now, the Dutch blood being worked out of them, our fly- 

 ing Baldheads and Beards appear in head and beak no better than Skinnums. I think 

 the short flight and tail, short but feather-legged Almond, or Almond-bred birds — viz. 

 —Almonds, Splashers, Kites, Whole-feathers, &c., would tumble infinitely superior to 

 any Tumbler we have ; I think this is worth trying. 



MOTTLED TUMBLERS. 



(Mayor, par. 196, A, p. 64.) — There was also a prize last season for black mottled 

 Tumblers, whose properties should agree with those of the Almond Tumbler, except 

 the feather, which should be a black ground, the body mottled with white, with a black 

 tail and flight ; and when they are in perfection, they are an excessive pretty fancy and 

 very valuable. There is likewise another very pretty fancy, equal at least, if not 

 superior, to the black mottled Tumbler, viz., the yellow mottled Tumbler, whose pro- 

 perties also agree with the Almond Tumbler, except the feather, which shovdd be a 



