Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Oozlum bird

The Ouzelum or Oozlum bird is a legendary creature found in Australian and British folk tales and legends. Some versions have it that when startled the bird will take off and fly around in ever-decreasing circles until it manages to fly up itself, disappearing completely, which adds to its rarity. Other sources state that the bird flies backwards so that it can admire its own beautiful tail feathers, or because while it does not know where it is going, it likes to know where it has been.

This talk of a bird going backwards when startled reminds me of two differenet domestic breeds of pigeons mainly the parlor tumbler who when scared will flip backwards as in the video below. Another is the Birmingham roller who flips back in the air. Is the Oozlum bird a pigeon? The parlor tumbler or parlor roller originated in Scotland and the United States around 1850 or earlier well the birmingham roller who flips well it flies and was orginated in England and whose time of origin is unknown. Whose to say what the Oozlum bird is but I believe it is a parlor roller or birmingham roller, or even one of the ancestors of these domestic breeds after all it had to come somewhere. So to the ancestor of parlor roller and the birmingham roller the Oozlum.




Scores

http://www.freebase.com/view/en/oozlum_bird
Encyclopedia of pigeon breeds by Wendell M. Levi

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