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North
American Highflying Rollers, American Rollers, and the American Flying
Tumblers By
K.D. Spurling (1998) In
light of the fact that the three breeds in the title are now so widely
kept from Sacramento to Seattle and the facts that so much confusion
exists about the three, it becomes time to differentiate among the three
breeds. As
a group, the North American Highflying Roller, American Rollers (two
varieties) and the American Flying Tumbler is not only similar to one
another, but are closely related and are allied breeds. The
true North American Highflying Roller makes up the root of this group of
breeds and first appeared in the loft of George 'Old Man' Stevens of
Toronto, Canada in 1869. These first came from a cross of Almond Oriental
Roller cock of ~ old Kurdistan type (which is conntrary to those seen
today and tended to be larger, stronger, and sloppier feathered pigeons
similar to Sarajevo and Lowicz Rollers), so crossed
upon a Blue Offside Badge Birmingham hen. This Birmingham hen was said to
be a roll down of such uncontrollable ability that she barely made it off
the ground and was a short, squatty pigeon with heavy grouse. In those
days, the Birmingham Roller was unlike what is seen today;
It is said that half would roll down and more resembled the Old
English flying Muffed Tumblers than what known today as a Birmingham. This
particular Blue Oddside hen was bred Thomas Boddy of Wolverhampton,
Britain and exported to Stevens in 1867. The resulting young of the Almond
Oriental cock and the Blue Oddside hen were particularly valueable pigeons
due to being of a fine color
quality, vivid markings and most importantly were very high and long
fliers and deep rollers. Being that Steven was a skilled artist, he
immortalized the pair and their best young in various mediums in the
1960's Chapman (1940) relates having seen the oil painting of a Blue hen
in 1894. Today most of these paintings by Stevens have been lost to the
fancy. However, the painting of the Blue Oddside hen and some of the
youngsters is today in the collection of a fancier in Saskatchewan. The
resulting descendants of this above mating soon spread like a wildfire
throughout Toronto and into Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York in the 1960's
Historically, Chas. Lienhard of Cincinnati, OH was the first in the US to
have them and that was 1876. Fanciers such as F.W. Liebchen and A.C. Karp
(both of Cleveland). F.S.
Schlicter (Portsmouth, OH), N.A. Brenner (Youngstown, OH), R.R.
Krupke (Canton, OH), E.R.B. Chapman (MA), Jack LaRue (NY), and others
acquired these pigeons in the late 1870's and early 1880's from both the
Toronto fanciers and also Lienhard. Rich
color, vibrant markings, depth of the roll and high and long flight were
to be the measure of value for these pigeons. As well, a lot of crossing
was to take place in the 1880's and 1890's to continue the breeds
evolution. So for example, in 1883 A.C. Karp crossed his Toronto birds
into Red and Yellow Gansel Komorners. In those days, the KT's were good
flying pigeons with close kitting instincts and perfect horizontal
performance and a large share was also plain headed. Karp created a
fabulous line of Red and Yellow Spangles largely from this. The fanciers
around Pittsburgh performed crosses into Scotch House Tumblers and this
yielded a number of famous lines of Black Badge birds of extreme death.
Liebchen, Schlicter and Brenner performed crosses into more Orientals and
also Central Asiatics upon the advice of Karp. In New York the Old German
Flight and the Romanian Botosani Tumbler also entered the gene pool.
Rumors also circulate that Hamburg Whitetails and Cologne Tumblers also
entered the gene pool and while these birds were easily accessible to many
fanciers (since a large number was German immigrants and imported many
pigeons as it was) - but we have no real proof. In the process, many birds
were sold, traded and given between the top fanciers and the progeny of
most crosses reached over 90% of all top lofts. In this way, the birds
represented a blending of Birmingham's,
Scotch House Tumblers,
Orientals, Central Asiatics, German Flight, Botosani and also true
Hungarian Komorner. Using records that are available and
many experimental crosses, we have come to a conclusion that the
majority at existing North Americans are mainly descendant of the Central
Asiatics and the Komorner Gansel and are composed of very little blood of
the Birmingham Roller. The
resulting birds were larger, longer cast and stronger pigeons all around
than any Birmingham Roller as a rule. Here we are not referring to size in
the show sense where the pigeons are increased in size, feather, etc., for
sake of looks - but for the sake of the vigor and aerial strength. These
birds flew 2 to 8 hours and rolled in excesses of about 50 and 75 feet or
more. At one point, they were widespread on this continent and possibly
the dominant breed in North America. The first written standard was put up
in 1912 by over 20 fanciers in Norman Brenner's basement. Today,
these pigeons have mostly died out and there are likely less than twenty
breeders in North America. However, even though we have no club, we are a
very, very organized group with all of us working for the same goals. At
this point, we profess that our breed is the ultimate example of a 'Super
Pigeon'. We still maintain the physical appearance of our birds, and for
example, our revised standard of the 1912 version gives 30 points for
colorquality (that's alot!). We are still working towards optimum depth
and as these are not Birmingham Rollers, we are not too concerned with
optimum velocity or frequency. Today, most members of the breed roll a
minimum of 50 and 75 feet with near perfect safety and that is what we
want - just depth. Today, at full development; many of the best pigeons
roll in excess of 125 or 150 Feet. Also we are aiming towards optimum
duration and we will (and have) competed with Tipplers and other endurance
breeds. On average, most existing lofts are flying 7 to 10 hours in
competition and a few of us are flying quite beyond this and posting times
of 12 to 14 hours. The modern record was set on Sept. 8th, 1998 by Mr.
Phil Roark of Grants Pass, OR (and Portland) with a time of 14 hours, 53
minutes. Technically, even Phil will admit that kits having flown beyond
the 15 hour mark are bred yearly - but these have kits have not done so on
the day that it matters. As well, most of us are now selecting for homing
ability. Three of us locally have actually been flying some sort 'NY
Flight Style' races in the vicinity of 40 to 60 air miles within 2 or 4
hours time and there are tales of North Americans homing incredible
distances of beyond 200 miles within a few days time. This is nothing for
even poor examples of Racing Homers, but for a breed that has
traditionally not been known as a homing breed, it is something very
amazing. I
would also like to add that the breed is still evolving after 130 years.
While type and color remains as it always has, the last several years some
great strides have been accomplished from an endurance standpoint and we
have been steady increases of depth and also control of the roll over the
last few years. Some of this has actually come about through the aid of
some strategic outcrosses. As one example, Phil Roark is now in possession
of a small line of Indigos and Andalusians which hold the modern endurance
record and are also very deep performers. These birds have come about from
an outcross into Serbian Highflier. One can also now see a few Self Whites
of incredible duration, but still lacking the depth we seek. These birds
have resulted from outcrosses into Budapestian Poltli Highfliers. The
breed commonly known as the American Roller arose mainly in the Portland
area during the 40's and 50's from true North Americans. At one point, the
two were one breed; but the Portland fanciers selected for a bird more
similar to the Birmingham Roller and I have audio documentation that
proves that certain Portland area fanciers re-crossed to Birmingham. These
birds have been more or less selected to conform to the basic Birmingham
idea due to smaller sizes, much shorter depth, and lower duration. In the
process, color has been largely ignored. As a whole, the Portland breeders
modified their birds to be the happy medium between the North American and
the Birmingham, and this group of birds actually has more in common with
the Birmingham than they do with the North American. There are some who
continue to insist tha~ the North American and American are one, but these
are people who have nc genuine clue of what the modern Norti American
Highflying Roller is capable of. NO ONE has never heard of an American
homing 50 miles in a day and NO ONE has never heard of an American flying
nonstop for 12 and 13 or
14 hours or more on a regular basis. In fact, I have NEVER heard of a
fancier in Portland going beyond 6 hours from them and that is pushing the
birds to their limit so that when they land, you see them gasping for air
and dragging their wings and tail in exhaustion. I am convinced that they
are incapable of going beyond this on a regular basis and no one expects
this.
The
bottom line is that the two breeds are related closely, and while they
share a few things in common - they are complete1y separate breeds. To
further confuse the situation, is the existence of the show type of
Agiencans which bear only a vague 'cscmblance of the above. These birds
were largely created through the effort of Ray Chisholm and Alan Shaw in
the lale 1970's. Reportedly, the birds are a fusion of Americans, Show
type Red Cameaux, French Gros Mondains and Also Modena in varying doses.
Keith Casteel is the purveyor of the Modena fusion. The addition of these
other hmeds has created a strictly exhibition of a greater girth than the
flying type. Richard Brooks and Keith Casteel are the two leading breeders,
with Richard having the most success of the recent years.
To make matters worse is the American (or Yankee) Tumblers. These
birds were created by the late C. Gus
Lichtenwald starting in the 50's. The arose from crossing Black American
cocks onto "Bukowina"
and 'Scouzafava'
hens. The term Bukowina is a bastardization of the Hungarian 'Bukovinai'
and both refers to the Romanian Botosan Tumblers. Jack LaRue of New York
had them for a number of years (pre 40's) and Mr. Scouzafava, also of New
York, inherited LaRue's pigeons. This term 'Scouzafava' would actually
refer to LaRue's North Americans which carried extreme amounts of Botosan
blood. In other words, the AFT's came about as a blending of the Portland
Americans crossed onto pure Botosans and North American with heavy doses
of Botosani blood. To confuse the situation worse, there are actually
three varieties of Botosani Tumblers. One is beak crested, groused and
carries the wings on the tail. The second is like the above, but also
features a shell crest. The third is actually a Central Asiatic mimic like
the Debrecins found in Hungary. The latter is the bird that history refers
to. Lichtenwald
desired a bloodline of small, tame, pearl eyed tumblers with the classic
head over feet stance that performed as actively as possible and flew in
close kits at a good vantage point. Emphasis was placed on frequency and
kitting, without regard to the type of performance. In his words: 'They
tumble, flop, roll, and spin.' Near
the end of Lichtenwald's years (he died in 1978), he also outcrossed into
the Flying Saddle Muffed Tumblers to mellow them as they were becoming
very dangerous in the
air. (Here again is substance to dangerous performance as a result of too
much frequency.) It
is notable to mention that all four breeds were actually present at the
last Fall Festival in November. To my knowledge, that was the first time
in history that all four breeds could be seen at the same show. If it all weren't confusing enough as it is, about 8 or 9 years ago I began developing the Kalla Tumbler. Small, short cast tumblers with semi short beaks, flat top heads and white grouse legs that extend only over the outer toe. These are a product of crossing together North Americans, Birmingham's, Parlors, Breslau MF Tumblers, Elbing SF Tumblers, AFT's, and an odd Kazan Trjasun Tumbler. At this point, they have appeared at three shows, have a written standard and have a few breeders across the country. And as one might expect, a few people on the Eastern seaboard have confused them into the North American - American mess. These are to be low duration fliers, tight kitters, and very, very active performers. In the air, performances of under 8 times per minute are not acceptable; the best performing 11 to 13 times a minute.
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