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Ancient Smyrna roller
The story about one of the oldest and pure-blooded races in the world begins somewhere in the rich fields of Mesopotamia. The legend says that Ishtar (Inana) goddess hurt pigeon (roller) by pricking him into the wing what made him rolling over. Ancient Smyrna roller is the ancestor of all wide tailed and dropped winged rollers.
A dozen of breeders are a proof that this race survived in authentic form (without crossbreeding, mixing with other similar races) with exact differences compared to Oryental rollers:
- they have longer beak and tail, with long and slim body.
- the tail has 16 feathers, not more or less. This number represents a pure-blooded race(the range between 14 and 22 feathers is wrong). All above16 feathers is a proof of crossbreeding, but a lower number can be caused by dropping out and / or moulting. Doubled feathers on tail are proof of a pure-blooded race.
- it is incorrect that this race can be in different colours; they are strictly determined to be sex bounded attributes: males are dotted with black spots on white basis, spots have blue - red reflection.
It is also incorrect to call this colour of males Arlequino, it would mean that we have neighbouring feathers of different colours - like files of different colours on roof: this is incorrect - in this case there are individual feathers in two colours - Arlequino. Females are black, blue and grey colour. The inversion of colours happens very rarely at males. It is also inportant to emphasise that males are hatched almost completely white, but during life and maturation they become more and more sprinkled; concering this fact we can determine the sex immediately after hatching. Black females have their beak in ivory (white) colour only and not black as you can usually hear. Black females can produce grey (smoky) females and viceversa. The colour of eyes is pearly (without pigment in iris) and nothing else is possible or allowed.
-it is the fact they came to Bosnia from Izmir (Turkey) - where they do not exist anymore. In 1660. the Turkish travelwriter Evli Celebi wrote in his "Travelrecord": "there come every year on carriage and camels 5-6000 loads of goods from Misir, Syria, Saida, Smyrna...". Just the way the other goods came it's the same with different oriental races of pigeons ...
At the end of 19th century they were called "Bosnians" in Sarajevo. At the end of the 2nd world war they were called "Izmirci"- Izmirnians. But they don't exist in Izmir any longer. Sarajevo is the capital of Bosnia. A few of the breeders will recognize them under the name of "Sarajevo rollers". But breeders from Sarajevo are not satisfied with the names Izmir, Smyrna...etc. The reason for this is taking away their primat in preservation of this rare race. This race was bred on different places in the area of ex Yugoslavia, but the most important place is Sarajevo. The reason for presenting this race under different names was open question concerning name and standard for this race (Izmir, Sarajevo, Smyrna); unfortunately the existing criterias for Oriental rollers have been still applied on this race. The breeders from Sarajevo tried in 1974. to register Smyrna roller as a new authentic race under the name: "Sarajevo's rollers - Sarajevski prevrtaci". But the Yugoslav commitee of pigeon breedersbreeders for pigeons, small animals, birds and rabbits refused this standard with explanation that standard for this new race is not different from standard of Oriental rollers. Taking this fact into consideration it can be concluded that the damage has been done to breeders of Sarajevo rollers.
RISK FACTORS:
1. True pure- blooded relativity which without inbreeding (incest) has a result with all negative effects: bad fertility of eggs, fragility of eggshells, bad breeding of the young.
2. Long wings and tail, longer body and finally- smaller specific weight which weakens faster diving (a characteristic of this race is so called butterfly flight) during their fleeing from birds of prey.
3. Lack of pigment in the eyes (iris) and a resultant of weaker eyesight during stronger sun and light are significant lack especially during attack of falcon .
4. Intensive white colour (sprinkled at males) is extraordinary bait for birds of prey.
5. Lack of rump(oil) gland (a characteristic for fantailed pigeons) : feathers are more sticky for dirt, bacterias, viruses, etc.: increased sensibility for different infective diseases; besides that feathers are weathed faster and dried slowly, during rainy weather it reduces speed of flying up to impossibility of flying.
6. Good rollers as a result of exaggerated selection give suiciders.
7. Small number of breeder makes impossible bloodrefreshing.
8. Crossbreeding with Oriental rollers leads the race to general extinction.
9. There are a lot of risk factors that jeopardise the survival of this rare race; I can mention one that connects legend of Ishtar goddess and Smyrna rollers with reality: according to unknown mutation the Smyrna rollers have the longest fragile feathers on wings that bleed as pricked by Ishtars needle (just like in legend).
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