The
Archangel White Trjasun
By
K.D. Spurling The
Archangel White Trjasun (Archangelski bela Trjasuni) is yet another race
of Statnije, or Russian Courtyard Tumbler. As its name indicates (which
should not allow it to be confused with Gimpels (Archangels), this breed's
origin lies within the seaport Archangel in NorthWestern Russia where it
has been bred for some 300 years in a relative obscurity to the point of
being only little known throughout the great Russian expanse and only then
by the greatest students of the Russian Statnije cult. The
story is told, by the last of its old time breeders, one Mikhail Melnikov
of Archangelsk, who's family (actually transplants to the region from the
Ukrain generations ago) played a dramatic role in the continueing
development of this breed, and who as an individual has maintained this
breed, mostly singlehandedly, for over some 70 years, that the Archangel
Trjasun came about through the local culture of snow white colored
Statnije of the common kind with no set characteristics hailing from the
surrounding areas, including pigeons from the city of Kazan, which
considering its point of origin and its basic characteristics, indicates a
relatively close relation to the now extinct Kazanski Trjasuni as it
existed during the Bojaren (Imperialist) era. In fact, no different than
the Bojaren style Kazanski Trjasuni, the Archangelski Trjasuni was
severely devestated during the Bolshevik Revolution when so many breeds of
Russian animals were nearly lost or plunged into extinction outright.
Fortunately, unlike the Kazan Trjasun, due only to the effort of Melnikov
family, did the Archangel Trjasun survive the revolution and the 70 years
of communism which followed it. The story is told further, how during the
revolution, the Archangel Trjasun's population crept as low as only 5
birds in number due to the level of poverty the Melnikov family
experienced. Only through some sacrafise did these 5 individual birds
survive to
rebuild their breed and among them, but one lone cock who had been
named "Otar", a bird of tremendous muff size and perfect form,
but with a wry crest who is the effective "Adam" of the entire
Archangel Trjasun breed, in that every pigeon after the revolution
descends from him and the four hens; these hens included: "Anya"
a hen of extremely good form, but shorter in muffs and minus a crest,
"Zvezda" (which interestingly enough, is also the name of an
Ancient Slavic Godess attributed to as the protector of doves and the
Godess of love in Slavic mythology) who was regarded as
the finest of the four hens being that she had huge muffs, a
swan-like neck, a full crest, large expressive bull eyes, a flat broadtail
and extremely short plumage, "Elina" who was a daughter of Otar
and Zvezda who was nearing the quality of Zvezda, but like Otar had a wry
crest, and finally, "Natazha" who had exquisite type, but had
impure color in that she was mottled with black through the chest due to
the fact that she had been a local stray and was likely not a pure member
of the breed. From these five birds, the modern breed descends exclusively. As
the name would indicate, the only color in this breed is self white with
large expressive bull eyes. The head is an oval with a shell crest lacking
rosettes and a medium length beak. Due to the fact that Otar was the sole
male of the breed, most of the breed today also carries his faulty wry
crest. The neck is long and swanlike, bending backwards and shakes
viloently when the bird is in a solid stance. Any shaking of the neck
while the bird is walking is to be regarded as a grave fault as is
a among all Trjasuni Statnije races since the characteristic of
shaking the neck while the bird is walking is a characteristic of the
Katschuni sub-variety and not the Trjasuni or Vislokrilije (the latter of
which are not to shake their necks). The chest is full, rounding and
carried uplifted. The back is short and wide. The tail is flat, broad and
containing 14 to 18 retrices. The feet are short and completely covered in
feathers, varying from simple bell-shaped muffs to muffs roughly three and
a half to four inches in length. This
breed is today, easily one of the rarest, with less than 75 birds existing
in Russia between three lofts. In August of 1999, this writer was
privelaged enough to obtain
two pairs from the loft of that great Statnije breeder, Ivan
Schmelev of Yekaterinagrad as a gift, and a most glorious one indeed. |