The Short-faced Almond Tumbler. i>j2, 



smoky tail barred at the end with darker colour, and however much auch 

 birds may assist in breaking the feather in almond breeding, they cannot 

 impart the desii-ed velvety black colour. Eed and yellow wholefeathers, 

 grizzled with white in flights and tail, or agate wholefeathers, as they 

 have been called, are merely unsound reds and yellows, weak in strength 

 of colour. All these sub-varieties of the almond are used in almond 

 breeding, and they are matched with almonds according to the way they 

 are themselves bred. Although it is not unusual to breed almonds together 

 occasionally, such breeding, from richly-grounded ones, often results in 

 young ones entirely or almost white, with what are called bladder eyes, 

 almost or quite blind. When such a result happens, the pair must be 

 dismatched at once, and some of the off colours used. I have seen a pair 

 of almonds produce all the colours I have mentioned except blacks and 

 black splashes, so it will easily be seen that there is much uncertainty 

 in the production of this beautiful pigeon, and that it is a study in itself. 

 When I was young in the fancy I thought the almond tumbler the finest 

 and the most beautiful of all pigeons, and I was never weary of admiring 

 my first pair, which were Spitalfields bred birds, and which cost me a sum 

 of d65. It is over twenty years ago since then, but I well remember that 

 I bred five birds from them during their first season (two almond cocks, 

 an almond hen, and two golden dun hens), which realised me d£12, and 

 pigeons were cheaper in those days than of late years. 



Since the secret, so well kept for so long, and which was in reality a trade 

 secret, of manufacturing the heads of short-faced tumblers, was given to 

 the world in Fulton's book of pigeons, the almond fancy has declined; 

 but after a time it will rise again, when the importance attached to the 

 head of the bird gives way to its other beautiful properties. There is 

 enough in the natural short-faced tumbler ia all its varieties to entitle it 

 to the position of a very high class pigeon. The shaping of the skuU, 

 which is begun when the squab is a few days old and continued during 

 its growth in the nest, is done by pressing with a wooden instrument, 

 shaped for the purpose, or with the thumb nail, at the root of its beak, 

 and so forcing the bone back into the head, which gives breadth, height, 

 and a deep stop. This is a cruel process, which kills many in the doing, 

 and which renders the lives of those that survive it for the most part 

 miserable. No pigeon is so much troubled with vermin as the short-face, 

 as it is wholly unable, with its tiny beak, to free itself from them ; and 



