BREEDING PLYING TUMBLERS. 133 



but performance is most studied, as ia Homing pigeons. There 

 are also solid or self-coloured birds, and mottled birds in which 

 the colours are intermingled all over the body. There are 

 Whitesides, in -vsduch all is coloured except the sides of the 

 wings ; Saddles, in which the flights are white as well, also the 

 thighs and lower breast — in fact, the same as a Magpie exactly; 

 Grizzles, and all kinds of odd colours and markings. All these 

 (and more) are found both clean and feather-legged. Our 

 illustration shows a muff-legged Mottle,- and a Saddle or 

 Magpie-marked bird. 



The birds being generally paired to preserve a given 

 style of performance, it is needless and impossible to give 

 directions for mating, beyond the general principle that if any 

 selection at all be desired in colour and marking some suita- 

 bility in matching should be studied ; such as putting a good 

 red to a good black, and heavily-pied markings to each other, 

 and not to mixed Mottles or Grizzles. Good performers of 

 the ordinary type are generally wide at the shoulders and 

 chest, and very narrow at the rump ; also somewhat short 

 in the back, which often exhibits signs of hoUowness, as 

 might be expected. The eyes are pearly white, and the fore- 

 head rather high, though without the decided "stop" which 

 has been developed in the Short-faces. 



In addition to the Flying Tumblers familiar to English 

 fanciers, Mr. Ludlow has described, under the name of 

 " Oriental Rollers," a quite distinct and very remarkable 

 variety, cultivated in Greece, Turkey, and Asia Minor, of which 

 several specimens have on one or two occasions been imported. 

 They are found of all colours, including a kind of almond 

 feather ; and the whole-coloured blacks are remarkable for two 

 points, which distinguish them from ordinary black pigeons. 

 The first is an extraordinary iridescent lustre, which extends 

 throughout the body, somewhat like the bronze in an 



