The Feather's Practical Pigeon Book 



to that source. I have long been of the opinion that 

 they originated in or about l-'hiladelphia, and in corres- 

 pondence with an old-time fancier of this novel variety, 

 Mr. T. S. Armstrong, he writes me as follows : " My 

 experience and recollection of Inside Tumblers com- 

 mences about thirty-five years ago. At that time it was 

 very seldom that we could get a bird that would ever 

 perform in a large room. I don't think that I ever saw 3 

 bird turn over within six inches of the floor until at 

 least ten years later." 



I have maintained that Inside Tumblers, or at least 

 what we call inside birds, are strictly a Philadelphia 

 breed, and to the manor born. Wright and other Eng- 

 lish writers refer to them rarely, and when they do it 

 seems to me that their ideas and our own differ very 

 much. Years back very little attention was paid to any 

 point except tumbling. We would select the best Out- 

 side Tumblers we could get without regard to shape, 

 coloi', etc., only so they performed well, "came down in 

 a roll" as the boys used to say; price was no object. 

 Then we would fly the young ones from six months to 

 6. year ; those that stayed down and were not gobbled up 

 by cats, we would select as the future breeders. So we 

 kept on, and as I write, old names come up that I had 

 well nigh forgotten. English Dave, Harry Herdegen. 

 Mike Grogg, Tommy Walls, Bill Runye, and about as 

 many more that I can not bring to mind, many of them 

 having passed over the border. Yet to these men be- 

 long the credit in my estimation of the origin of the 

 real simon pure and only Inside Tumblers. 



After a few years of patient experimenting more at- 

 tention was paid to breeding to color, and after ten or 

 fifteen years, birds began to come that we could not let 

 out nor fly, and at the present time we do not think ai 



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