CHAPTER X. 



THE COMMON TUMBLER. 



THE title of Tumbler, as the word implies, was originally applied to those 

 pigeons that showed an hereditary disposition to turn or tumble over 

 backwards during their flight. These breeds were noticed by Willughby, who 

 wrote in the seventeenth century. He described them as being " small and of 

 divers colours," and stated : " They have strange motions, turning themselves 

 backward over their heads, and show like footballs in the air." All varieties of 

 pigeons, when in good health and high condition, appear to possess an excess 

 of animal spirits that they permit to find vent in some energetic muscular 

 exertion. The quick-flying birds, that formed the subject of the last chapter, dart 

 off in rapid flight, and dash about in the air in eccentric courses, evidently only 

 that they may experience the delight of energetic muscular movement. The 

 birds known as Rollers ascend to a great height in the air, and roll over during 

 their flight from side to side with great rapidity. Pouters and other breeds smite 

 their wings forcibly whilst flying, and so on. 



Although the Tumblers, strictly so called, namely, the tumbling birds, those 

 that throw themselves over backwards during flight, have been known for a very 

 long period, the fancy races are of comparatively recent introduction. Even 

 Moore, in his " Columbarium," published in 1735, omits all notice of many 

 of the varieties that have been since highly esteemed by fanciers, and describes 

 Tumblers not so much with reference to their structural peculiarities as to their 

 singular actions during flight. His, the first detailed English account of this 

 breed, is as follows : — ■ 



" The Tumbler. — This bird is so called from an innate faculty peculiar to this 

 species, which is their tumbling in the air, and which they effect by throwing 

 themselves over backward, after the same manner that the most expert artists in 

 tumbling perform what they call the back spring. 



"A Tumbler is a very small pigeon, short-bodied, full-breasted, thin-necked, 

 spindle-beaked, and a short button head, and the irides of the eye of a bright 

 pearl colour. 



" The Dutch Tumbler is much of the same make, but larger; often feather- 

 legged, and more jowlter-headed, with a thin flesh or skin round the eye, not 

 unlike a very sheer Dragoon. Some people don't esteem them on this account, 

 though I have known very good ones of the Dutch breed, not any ways inferior to 



