European Show Leipzig 06 II

 Tumblers are one of the greatest classes and were entered in great numbers and different breeds. Despite the age of the breed and the tradition of most of the colorations exhibitors and also show judges seem to have difficulties to classify the birds correct. Thus the whole group of “rot bunt” Memeler Highfliers inclusive of the best cock with hv96 ET were light veined of the red type and not “rot bunt”. Correct “Rotbunte” are listed in the standard but represent quite another colouration. Also Danish Tumbler “perlede” or “pearl blue” were erroneously shown and judged in the class for simple dilute blue bars (silver bars). And again the class of yellow selfs included some gold instead of yellow birds with a much darker tone. Danish Stippers were also present, however only in the grey variety, they were shown by a Dutch fancier and not by our Danish neighbours.

188 German Long Beaked Tumblers were shown. One of the greater sub-classes in this breed was the group of beards ash yellow bar. There is some discussion in the moment about the name of this colour and also about the correct colouration.

From a genetic point of view in Germany ash yellow bars in combination with the grizzle factor in tumblers is called “streifig”, e.g. Berlin Short Beaked Tumblers and Schöneberger Streifige. “Streifen” is just another word for “bars” or “bands”, perhaps we could translate it with stripe. Formerly and in the old literature yellow bars in combination with some kind of Ice were called “Gelbbänder” (yellow banded) and are known e.g. from the Hamburg Sticken. Common ash yellows sometimes were called cream or even isabell in some breeds, and to make the confusion perfect, also the term “yellow banded” sometimes was used for them. Thus, the use of names never was uniform in old times.

From literature we know that ash yellow bars of the Beard Tumbler despite the different genetic make-up formerly were also called “yellow-streifig” like the Berlin Tumblers. However, before being overwhelmed by nostalgic feelings and to conclude to go back to the old name we should compare the birds of today with the former birds. From old paintings of “yellow- and red-streifig” birds after 1900 we learn that the Beards shown in the pens in Leipzig are not identical (compare the photos in the German language report). The ancient birds had a deep red or yellow neck, the birds exhibited in Leipzig show a frosty neck, some kind of ice or ice-mimic seems to be involved. The former birds were similar to the today Danish ash yellow and ash red barred Tumblers and such birds might also exist in the Beards today but were not shown. Therefore, not only the term for the colouration has changed, but the coloration of at least some Beards in the leading strains, too.

Berlin Long-Muffed Tumblers were shown in a lot of different colourations and for some of them we are also not quite sure how they looked like in former time. Probably the coloration also changed during the decades depending on the taste of fanciers and also due to more or less arbitrary crosses with other breeds. It might be therefore useful to state in the accompanied pictures how dark blue, silver (dilute blue) and light blue differ in the Berlin Long-Muffed Magpie Tumbler in the year 2006.

In the class of the Danzig Highfliers with a dilute “Dunkelmaser” hen also an absolute rarity was shown in no. 42617, unrealized most probably by the breeder and the judge, too. Pomeranian Eye Crested Highfliers in top quality were shown by leading fanciers in white and black, and also Oriental Roller had their specifics with “Vielfarbene”, Sprenkles, DeRoys and Kites as common colorations of the Almond family. Agates were missing. Kites were shown with a white beak, something unusual in other breeds. The beak usually is dark horny as is the case for Kites of the Danish Brown Stippers. Experts discussed at the show pens the genetics of yellow and red sprenkles and concluded that they (or at least most of them) are something else but not Almonds and thus should not be compared with black sprenkles. Probably another description in the standard is required. This also holds for red and yellow sprenkles in other breeds like the Debrecine Rollers. One of the Debrecine Rollers was exhibited and judged as brown bar, however it was a silver bar (dilute blue) plus bronze. A lot of smaller collections of foreign breeds were shown that cannot all be mentioned all. Different colorations were shown in the group of the Catalanian Tumblers, including some nuns. Polish Szek-Tumblers butterfly-marked proved to be storked birds, steel-blue in that breed means a lighter Dirty-blue. Buga Tumbler from Hungary and Escampadissa Tumblers from Spain are only two interesting breeds from many took attention of the visitors. The latter were exhibited as blue bars, however, usually we call this colour Kites. Plain headed Karakand Tumblers are a breed from North-Syria and very similar in the general appearance to the (crested) Danzig Highfliers and demonstrated that also otherwise Highfliers with a wide tail exist. Polish Orliks are related to other breeds of South Russia and Ukraine, and also the yellow and red Wilna Orliks are part of this group. Polish short beaked Magpies are similar to Markish Magpies, and the Hungarian black magpies resembled the ancestors of the modern long beaked magpies and the since long extinct north German Kiel magpie tumbler.

Last not least 46 Limerick Tumblers were shown. Limerick is a well know type of poems following specific rules. However, the breed or at least the name for it seems to be of rather recent origin. They are attractive birds mainly in colorations of the Almond group and alleles of it. Several of them were exhibited as “Vielfarbige”, others in the AOC-class resembled Qualmond, one of them heterozygous Faded. The type is similar if not identical to the flying type of the West of England Tumbler who was created before 1900 by crossing Oriental Roller and Dutch Highfliers. The Show West was created in the USA and now is a rather heavy and brawny pigeon that has removed far from those birds still pictured in the book from Levi “Encyclopedia of Pigeon Breeds, 1965”. However, compared to the original Flying West the only difference seems to be the shortness and setting of the beak, thus perhaps not a great innovation, rather a nostalgic rediscovery. The new type might have been developed by crosses with English Muffed Long Faced Tumblers. However, the breed looks much more elegant than both the Show West and the Long-Faced Tumbler, however, this soon my change in the process of breeding for the show pen, since unfortunately the cock that was selected as model and graded highest was lacking all the elegance that made the breed something outstanding (see the photos in the German language report). Not a good omen for the future.