THE ERMINE, OR ALMOND TUMBLER.-THE POUTER. 
53 
were the most exaggerated, they got bodies still moro compact, heads yet 
rounder, beaks shorter, and feet neater. 
A third variety is the black-mottled tumbler, which is generally all black 
except about a dozen white feathers on the shoulders. A fourth is the 
yellow-mottled tumbler , which has a body mottled with white on a yellow 
ground, and with a yellow flight and tail; and many other individual varie¬ 
ties are constantly produced. 
THE ERMINE, OR ALMOND TUMBLER. 
Tumblers should be kept in a loft by themselves, and never suffered to mix 
with any other sort of pigeon, as they soon lose their peculiar habits of soar¬ 
ing and tumbling; they should be turned loose only once a day to take wing, 
and never on a very bright or clear day. A gray, clear morning is the best 
time for them to exercise. They should never be let out on a foggy or misty 
morning, for they may in such weather be irrecoverably lost; nor should they 
be out in windy weather. When their hours of liberty are expired, they may 
be enticed home by a little hempseed scattered round their usual places of 
feeding. A hen tumbler should never be let out to fly when with egg. 
THE POUTER. 
The pouter is a fine, handsome bird, distinguished by the peculiar size 
and form of the crop, which the bird is able to distend by filling with air. 
He measures, generally, about eighteen inches in length, a^d ought to have 
a fine hollow back, sloping gradually to the shoulders, to be prized. When 
the back is straight, or bows out, the bird is then said to be hog-backed. 
It ought also to carry its wings close to its body; and its legs, from the toe¬ 
nail to the upper joint of the thigh, should be at least seven inches in length, 
and well covered with downy feathers. 
