THE COMMON TUMBLER. ] 05 



" Of all the Doves that cleave the air, give rne, in its unsophisticated and 

 vulgarly bred state, the pretty little Tumbler. Birds at two or three shillings the 

 pair are better than those at two or three guineas, in spite of the ' Treatise ; ' the 

 learned author of which we may magnanimously gainsay, without fear of contra- 

 diction, as he is long since quiet in his grave. The Tumbler, whether you 

 Frenchify it as the Pigeon Culbutant, or Latinize it as the Columba gyratrix, is 

 sure to attract notice for its intrinsic excellencies. Do you want a bird to eat '? 

 It is as good as any ; a merit, though a humble one. It breeds as freely, and 

 with as little trouble ; and there is nothing so neat and trim as it is among 

 domestic birds, not even the most perfect of the Sebright Bantams. With its 

 little round head and patting red feet, it is exactly a feathered Goody Two-shoes. 

 And then, its performances in the air ! beating all the Cordes Volantes, or Tight- 

 rope Diavoli, into disgraceful inferiority. It is decidedly the most accomplished 

 member of the aerial ballet. Pirouettes, capers, tours de force, and pas d'agilite, 

 all come alike in turn. Other pigeons certainly can take any course in the air, 

 from a straight line, that would satisfy Euclid as being the shortest distance 

 between two points, to circles and ellipses that remind us of the choreal orbits of 

 the planets round the sun ; but the Tumbler, while it is rapidly wheeling past 

 some sharp corner in a tightly compressed parabola, seems occasionally to tie a 

 knot in the air through mere fun ; and in its descents from aloft, to weave some 

 intricate braid, or whip-lash. This latter performance, I suspect, is quite a leger- 

 de-vol, or sleight of wing ; the bird does now and then tumble heels over head, 

 and perform somersets, which the best clown at Astley's would be unwilling to 

 risk at the same altitude above terra firma — for example, on the tip of a cathedral 

 spire, or in the car of a balloon — but many of these intricate weavings are the 

 result of some trick, best known to the performer, the real solution of which may 

 be suspected to be the non-coincidence of the apparent centre of gravity of the 

 bird with its real one. The Indian jugglers have a similar feat, in throwing a 

 ball in a spiral course instead of in an acute parabola, more or less approaching 

 to a vertical straight line ; and the laws of motion would assure us that, with a 

 homogeneous ball, such a feat is impossible, under the existing circumstances ot 

 the universe. But take a large hollow spherical shell, heavily loaded internally 

 at one point of its circumference with lead, so that the centre of gravity of the 

 mass is by no means in the centre of the hollow sphere, and a clever juggler, by 

 a dexterous twist, will make it play strange freaks. Just so the wings and tail 

 of the Tumbler are made to follow the impulse which themselves have given, and 

 to revolve round the solid body of the bird, in seemingly the most unaccountable 

 fashion. 



" Our birds have all been shut up over night, so to-day let us have a morning 

 performance, by special desire. Terpsichore, the saltatory Muse, belongs as much 

 to air as to earth. House-tops, or better, tree-tops, shall be the boards of our 

 rustic opera-stage ; clouds shall be the wings ; the blue sky, the flies ; the rising 

 sun shall do his best to fill the place of the gas in the footlights ; the orchestra 



