The Trumpeter. 183 



Europe was no doubt the effect of the Eussian conquests in the East 

 during late years. At the same time, choice trumpeters may have existed 

 for a long while in the interior of Russia, but if they have, I doubt not 

 but that they originally came from Asia. Finding these choice birds 

 described by Neumeiater and Priitz as Bucliarisclie trommeltauhen, I 

 inquired of several German gentlemen the meaning of the name, whether 

 it signified Bucharest or Bokhara, but no one could decide. About a year 

 ago, however, when corresponding with Mr. Charles Jamrach, of London, 

 regarding some of these pigeons brought here by a Eussian, he informed 

 me that the man actually brought them all the way from Bokhara, with 

 other live stock. So I think it is conclusive that they are a Central 

 Asian breed which has only lately reached us in its purity, all previous 

 importations of trumpeters having either been inferior, or allowed by 

 Europeans to decline in quality ; while, on the other hand, it is possible 

 that when European fanciers did nothing to raise the character of what 

 they had the Bokharians may have improved theirs from stock similar to 

 what we had before. 



The trumpeter is certainly a very high class original pigeon, but for 

 some reason not a general favourite, though no one will deny that it has 

 many beautiful properties. The reason that it is not more generally 

 fancied and bred, is doubtless the fact that it has nothing in its conforma- 

 tion very abnormal, such as the pouter, carrier, or turbit, all of which 

 present great difficulty in breeding towards an ideal standard, while its 

 peoularitiea are almost entirely those of feathering, of such a fixed type, 

 that it presents little scope for competition. Were as many fanciers to 

 employ their time in breeding trumpeters as pouters, there would be 

 twenty of the former for one of the latter approaching perfection. 

 Fanciers know this, and therefore the trumpeter is left in a few hands, 

 regarded more as a curiosity than as a fanciers' pigeon. Supposing, 

 with aU its fine properties, the short-faced mottled tumblers' standard 

 of feather were to be fixed for the trumpeter, it would then present 

 difficulties which any fancier might be proud in overcoming, but this 

 standard is not only full of difficulties, as already explained, but it is a 

 standard open above all others to fraud. The Germans have long since 

 bred trumpeters to turbit and other markings, though in doing so they 

 have lost quality in the more important points of the breed. Brent and 

 others have written of the difficulty there is in preserving the voice and 



