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Show 152 DOMESTIC PIGEONR. CIIAP. v. Tumbler of India, in not roiJuiring to be shaken in ordor to. begin tumbling. Tho brood has probably been formed merely by solcctmg tlto best common Tumblers, though it is possible that they may have boon crossed at some former period with Lotans. Sub-race IV. Short-juced Tmnbler.~ .-Thoso arc marvellous birds, and are the glory and pride of many fanciers. In their extremely short, sharp, and conical beaks, with the skin over the nostrils but little developed, they almost rlcpart from the type of the Colnmbidre. Their heads are nearly globular • CIIAl'. V. DESCRIPTION OF BREEDS. 153 and upright in f1J>nt, so thn.t some fanciers say 18 " tho head should resemble a cherry With a badey-corn stuck in it." These arc the smallest kind of pigeons. Mr. Esquilant possessed a blue Baldhcad, two years old, which when alive weighed, before feeding-time, only 6 oz. 5 drs. ; two others, each weighed 7 oz. We have seen that a wild rock-pigeon weighed 14 oz. 2 drs., and a Runt 34 oz. 4 drs. Short-faced Tumblers have a remarkably erect carriage, with prominent breasts, drooping wings, and very Rmall foot. The length of tho beak from the tip to tho feathered base was in one good bird only ·4 of an inch; in a wilCI rock-pigeon it wal exactly double this length. As these Tumblers have shorter bodies than the wild I'Ock-pigcon, they ought of course to have shorter beaks; but proportionally with tho size of body, the beak is ·28 of an inch too short. So, again, the feet of this bird were actually ·45 shorter, and proportionally ·21 of an inch shorter, than the feet of the rock-pigeon. The middle toe bas only twelve or thirteen, instead of fomteen or fifteen scutcllre. The primary wing-feathers are not rarely only nine instead of ten in number. The improved short-faced Tumblers have almost lost the power of tumbling; but there are several authentic accounts of their occasionally tumbling. 'rhcre arc several sub-varieties, such as Baldheads, Boards, Mottles, and Almonds; tho latter arc remarkable from not acquiring their perfectly-coloured plumage until they have moulted three or four ·times. There is good reason to believe that most of these sub-varieties, some of which breed truly, have arisen since the publication of Moore's treatise in 1735.19 Finally, in regard to tho whole group of Tumblers, it is imp~ssiblo to conceive a more perfect gradation than I have now lying before me, from the rock-pigeon, through Persian, Lotan, and Common Tumblers, up to the marvellous short-faced birds; which latter, no ornithologist, judging from mere external structure, would place in the same genus with tho rock-pigeon. 'rho differences between tho successive steps in this series are not greater than those which may be observed between common dovecot- pigeons (0. livia) brought from different countries. RACE VIII.-INDIAN FRILL-BACK. Beale very short; feathers reversed. A specimen of this bird, in spixits, was sent to me from Madras by Sir W. Elliot. It is wholly different from the Frill-back often exhibited in England. It is a smallish bird, about the size of the common Tumbler, but bas a beak in all its proportions like our short-faced Tumblers. Tho beak, measured from the tip to the feathered base, was only ·46 of an inch in length. The feathers over tho whole body are reversed or eurl backwards. Had this bird occurred in Europe, I should have thought it only a monstrous variety of om improved Tumbler; but as short-faced Tumblers are not known in India, I think it must rank as a distinct breed. Probably 18 J. M. Eaton's • Treatise on Pigeons,' 1852, p. 9. I9 J. M. Eaton's Treatise, edit. 1858, p. 76 . |