The Short-faced Almond Tumbler. 167 



in India, the love of pigeons which has posaesaed me ainoe I oonld crawl , 

 canaed me to aaaociate with pigeon fanciers there ; and when I saw a race 

 of birds (the Goolees), having all the shape and carriage of the short-faced 

 tnmblers, of much the same aize and of the same style of head, it struck 

 me, that as the Mookee had been described by Willughby in 1676, the 

 Goolee might also have been in England at that time, and have helped to 

 found the breed of short-faces. 



About two years ago, being in London, I met Mr. Jayne, of Croydon, 

 one of the principal breeders of almond tumblers, and as he invited me to 

 see his stud of birds, I gladly availed myself of the opportunity. After 

 seeing his stock, I asked him if he believed that the short-faced tumbler 

 had been bred from the common tumbler and nothing elae. He replied 

 that it was the reault of crosses between the tumbler and other varieties, 

 that the African owl had been used in producing it, and that his friend, 

 the late Mr. Morey, was the only man he ever knew who could give its 

 true history. Eaton, in his 1858 book, at page 187, says, " the late Mr. 

 Harry Edward Morey, chairman of the City Columbarian Society, and an 

 excellent old fancier, used to say, however low his stud of birds was re- 

 duced, he had never been without pigeons for the last sixty years." The 

 combined evidence of Mr. Jayne and Mr. Morey, therefore, goes back to 

 the last century, and it is probable enough that Mr. Morey had spoken, 

 in his youth, to men who had been pigeon fanciers before the treatise of 

 1765 was ever designed, and that was about the time the almond tumbler 

 became of consequence in the fancy. Since speaking with Mr. Jayne on 

 this subject, I found in the Vidd, newspaper of Oct. 19, 1872, a report of 

 an address he delivered to the members of the National Peristeronio 

 Society, when he was president. His subject was " The Almond Tum- 

 bler," and I quote the following sentences : "You are aware my only 

 hobby has been a short-faced pigeon, and of all the varieties none can 

 equal, in my idea, the almond tumbler ; if for no other reason, I should 

 admire it as a purely English manufactured pigeon. How often and how 

 deeply have I lamented that I allowed to escape the knowledge of this 

 beautiful bird possessed by my esteemed companion, the late Mr. Morey. 

 He was the only person that I ever heard give a description of the thirty- 

 two croases by which this almond tumbler was produced." 



Without having seen Mr. Jayne and conversed with him on the subject, 

 I should not have known what to understand by the thirty-two crosses he 



