Colour & Character

Jack Prescott
(Internet Published) Sept 2000

Is character related to colour? I've listened to debates on this issue. In my time, I have known men who opted for just one colour or, one colour related type. Tipplers, Rollers, and Flying Tumblers do better when they are of uniform character. Anyone who has seriously been involved with these breeds, will know that the character and potential of individuals is extremely varied, so much so, that their behaviour may very well lead one to believe, that they were of different species. Some specimens, even from one family are so vastly different in character that it is difficult to believe how this is possible.

Many years ago I decided to keep only the black badged marked specimens. I had more of these, than the red badges. My original competition rollers came from a noted fancier who kept both the red and the black badge issue. Very often one nestling was red and the other one black. I suppose that this was uniformity of sorts because no other colour cropped up. I selectively bred for the black badges and gradually over the years succeeded in what, I reckoned, was a homozygous (pure) strain. I suppose that it was just a fad of mine and I have always been a stickler for order and uniformity.

Some Roller pigeon men, liked to have a wide range of colours and markings their issue looking like a patchwork quilt but for some reason I prefer the simplicity of a checker board design, black and white. What could be more plain, simple and more uniform than that?

After several years of killing all reds as soon as they were identified in the nests, I succeeded in assembling and maintaining a large kit of black badges. Never perfectly marked and hardly two of them were marked precisely alike but there was a uniformity at a glance. All were black with white flights and some white on their heads. The tails were either all back or mixed black and white. I wasn't concerned about these differences. I had what I'd aimed for, a large kit of basically black badges. In addition to my colour selection I was ever on the look out for individuals that didn't conform precisely as kit pigeons. I used to get just a few that had the habit of drifting out of the kit and I always killed those if they persisted, so my selection was not confined to colour only. Gradually, I found that I was killing less and less, for these two faults and I honestly believe that my kit improved as flyers and mass performers. I have not had an outcross for many many years and have no need of one in my expected life time.

However, in May, 2000 one of my pairs threw a red which was also 50% white. I bad throwback. I decided to keep it. It's an excellent kitter and uniform performer, so far, but it carries its wings under its tail and is much more tame than all of my other 54 kit pigeons. It also has split pupil eyes. For the time being I'll keep it.

I really must be getting old----------