CHAPTER ELEVEN. 



THE TUMBLER FAMILY. 



The Short-Faced Tumbler. 



My earliest association with pigeons was really as a 

 breeder of performing Tumblers and Tipplers, and the 

 better the birds performed the more delighted those of us 

 who used to breed these varieties felt ; but in recent years 

 the performers which rose in the air and made so many 

 evolutions from a very high altitude as to almost hit the 

 ground in their evolutions are pigeons of bygone days. 

 In fact, Tumblers have been bred out so much for exhibi- 

 tion purposes, as Mr. Williment in his article on the 

 Long-Faced Tumbler points out, that the performing 

 properties have been entirely lost. 



Amongst the Short- Faced Tumblers the Almond will 

 always and should of necessity be the chief of the variety. 

 At one time the breeding of Almond Tumblers was really 

 a special a.tt to which many keen fanciers devoted them- 

 selves. Fulton in his old edition devotes much space to 

 the variety, the principal features of which are the ground 

 colour of the bird, the shape and fulness of the head and 

 eye, and, as age increases, the quality of the markings 

 as against the undercolour. A really good Almond 

 Tumbler takes four years to show its beauties to perfec- 

 tion, and no doubt it is because the breed requires so 

 much patience on the part of the fancier to wait this 

 length of time that many have given up the breed and 

 taken up other varieties that develop more quickly. Fulton 

 was undoubtedly one of the best authorities on the Short- 

 Faced Tumbler. He was very strong on the subject of 



