167 THE FANTAIL. 



to be about 150 years old, represent Fantails. The best is 

 a completely Turbit-marked, or Saddle-backed yellow, wbile 

 the other two are almond-feathered. The latter have low- 

 cut white heads and bibs, and are partly white in the tail. 

 The author of the treatise mentions an almond Narrow-tailed 

 Shaker, which was purchased by a certain nobleman. My 

 two paintings of almonds represent more than Narrow-tailed 

 Shakers, but they do not come up to the yellow Saddle-back, 

 which is a very good Fantail. The red and yellow pieds 

 must have become extinct in England, but black and blue 

 pieds still exist, I believe. They also existed in Scotland 

 fifty years ago, and were found in Dundee and its neighbour- 

 hood. From forty to fifty years ago, there was imported into 

 Dundee — from where is not cei'tain, though a fancier 

 there, Mr. David M'Intosh, who remembers the bird well, 

 asserts that it came from India — a well-marked black Saddle- 

 back Shaker hen, of high quality, which was the origi- 

 nator of the breed known as Dundee Saddle-backed Fantails. 

 This hen, crossed with the then existing breed of black and 

 blue pieds, produced a race of pied Broad -tailed Shakers of 

 the greatest excellence, which have, unfortunately, become very 

 scarce. A fancier named Mudie, who was lame, and went 

 by the name of "Cripple Mudie," had the strain about forty 

 years ago, and he bred many excellent specimens of red 

 and black-sided ones. He possessed the original hen, which, 

 when mated with a black splashed cock, produced one or 

 more red pieds, which were the progenitors of the Red- 

 marked ones, now nearly extinct. From recent inquiries I 

 have made, I believe this to be the true account of the 

 origin of these birds. The original black-saddled hen was 

 first secured by a Mr. Alexander Dow, who told me, in 1880, 

 that he sold her to the said Mudie. One of the first pigeons 

 I ever possessed was a red Saddle-backed Fantail. This 

 was thirty-five years ago, and about ten years afterwards I 

 had another red-sided cock of extraordinary style. The 



