1 66 Fancy Pigeons. 



Tlie Snorting Magazine, 80on after its commoncement in 1702, had a 

 portrait of a choice specimen, and in 1802 a monograph on the breed was 

 published in London by "An Old Fancier." The anther was Mr. W. P. 

 Windns, a solicitor, a member and afterwards the president of the Colnm- 

 barian Society. An engraved circular, dated 1S13, headed by a picture 

 of an almond and signed by him, calling a meeting of the society, is in 

 my possession. His treatise was the first book ever published on a single 

 variety of the domestic pigeon, and it goes thoroughly into its subject. 

 We learn from it that though it had been necessary to limit the length of 

 face, from the point of the beak to the iris or inner circle of the eye, to 

 seven-eighths of an inch, it was usual, when he wrote, to see birds 

 scarcely six-eighths in face, so that a great improvement had been made. 



In 1851, Mr. Eaton, an enthusiastic fancier of the almond tumbler, 

 published another monograph on the breed, so that this pigeon has been 

 twice honoured above all other fancy varieties. Mr. Eaton's book is an 

 unacknowledged reprint of the 1802 one, with additions, describing the 

 almond as it was in his day, and this brings us down to modern times. 



Although it is expressly stated by the author of the treatise (1765), 

 that " This beautiful and very valuable species were originally produced 

 from the common tumblers, being properly matched so as to intermix the 

 feather, viz., blacks, black-grisles, black-splash'd, yellows, whites, duns, 

 &c., and are always attainable if you are endowed with patience sufficient 

 for the tedious process, which requires a length of time," I have to 

 submit, that as regards the almond feather alone, it is not confined to 

 the tumbler. He himself mentions an almond barb and an almond narrow- 

 tailed shaker, which was purchased by a certain nobleman, and I have 

 seen almond runts and almond feathered pigeons in India, besides a very 

 good commencement for this colour in a yellow ground, broken to some 

 extent with black, in turbits and jacobins. The oriental roller is also to 

 be got of a light almond. The short-faced tumbler, however, independent 

 of colour, is a different matter, and how it was produced is a question 

 worth some attention. Not to admit the possibility of its origin from the 

 common tumbler alone, would be a denial of all I have advanced when 

 writing of the origin of fancy pigeons ; but certain facts having presented 

 themselves to me in my experience and observation of pigeons, I have 

 acquired the belief that the short-faced tumbler is a composite breed, and 

 was derived from the common tumbler and some other varieties. When 



