CHAPTER XI. 



THE SHORT-FACED TUMBLER. 



TT'OR many years, certainly for more than a century, pigeon fanciers have endea- 

 -L voured to modify the structure and form of the Tumbler pigeon. Their 

 object has been to obtain, by the most careful selection of brood-stock, a variety 

 in which the characters of the breed should be developed to the highest degree. 

 They have aimed at obtaining birds of very small size with a~peculiar carriage or 

 form, globular heads, and diminutive beaks. 



In this pursuit they have been most successful : perhaps there is not a more 

 artificial breed of animal existing than a Short-faced Tumbler, nor one which 

 departs more widely from the original type. In consequence of this extreme 

 variation from the natural standard, these birds are estimated very differently, as 

 they are regarded from different points of view. " Fanciers," as is truly said by 

 the enthusiastic Eaton, " do not esteem a medium standard, but admire extremes," 

 and, therefore, we are not surprised to find the author writing, " To my fancy, I 

 am not aware there is anything under the sun, or that you could imagine or con- 

 ceive, that is so truly beautiful and elegant in its proportions or symmetry of style 

 as the shape or carriage of the Almond Tumbler." Lovers of nature in her 

 unadorned beauty, on the other hand, view them with dislike. The author of 

 " The Dovecote " says, " The great wonderment about Tumblers is their form. 

 The whole thing, however, is very simple. The common Tumbler, au natural, 

 has a compact little body, with a round head, a short beak, and neat little feet. 

 But this did not content the fanciers. By pairing together birds in which these 

 qualities were the most exaggerated, they got bodies still more compact, heads yet 

 rounder, beaks shorter, and feet neater. It was the breeder's art carried to the 

 uttermost. As to the beaks, do what the fancier would, they still were not small 

 enough, and then the penknife was brought into use, to pare them down helow the 

 standard. The young of the birds so operated on had not, perhaps, smaller beaks 

 than those originally possessed by their parents, any more than a wooden-legged 

 man is necessarily the father of a wooden-legged family ; but still they sold, and 

 that was enough. And by coupling the most monstrous individuals of a race, a 

 family of monsters are kept in existence for a time. Tumblers have been bred 

 with their beaks so small that they cannot feed their own young, and with their 

 frames so compact that they cannot fly to the top of their breeder's bedstead. 

 They are called Tumblers only because if they could fly they would tumble. The 



