FERRIDAY, La. – Ernest Brown flips over pigeons – and they return the favor. Brown keeps about 50 of the birds in a pigeon house behind his Concordia Drive home, releasing them once a day so they can get a little exercise.

And when he does, they quickly reveal that they are not the typical pigeons that inhabit the sidewalks of a thousand downtowns. Circling overhead, first one, then another, of the pigeons turn somersaults in the air.

&uot;They’re not trained to do that,&uot; said Brown, whose father also raised pigeons at his Ferriday home when Brown was growing up. &uot;They’re spinner pigeons. It’s in their blood.&uot;

But spinner pigeons are not just for entertainment – they can be a money maker, too.

Spinner enthusiasts buy the best-bred birds and take careful care of them so they can enter the pigeons in contests in regional centers such as Alexandria and Lake Providence.

There, judges rate the birds based on such things as the tightness of their spins, and there are varying levels of prize money to be won.

Brown, looking up in pride at his birds and pointing out the spins, said he is still waiting to see if they have enough talent to succeed on the spinning circuit.

He also said he is raising about half of the pigeons, members of a breed called &uot;Birmingham Rollers,&uot; to be sold for use in such contests, and added that it is not unusual for such birds to be sold for $100 apiece.

But the spinner circuit is not all money and fame – some don’t make it.

For one thing, when such pigeons finish flipping, they instinctively dive almost to the ground before &uot;pulling up&uot; and making a soft landing. But some miscalculate and hit the ground, as one did just a few days ago – and lived. Brown shooed a neighborhood cat away from the bird and took it to a small recovery cage.

&uot;The next day, I woke up and it was standing up in its cage,&uot; Brown said. &uot;I couldn’t believe he hadn’t broken his neck.&uot;

And Brown has to keep a close eye on the sky, watching for hawks that have already killed several of his birds.

But despite the dangers, all the effort – his and the birds’ – is worth it, according to Brown. &uot;They’re something else,&uot;&160;he said, eyeing the sky once more.

The Dart is a weekly feature in which a reporter throws a dart at a map and finds a story wherever it lands.