173 THE FANTAIL. 



coloured as well. The German and French, names for the 

 Fantail are Pfautaube, and Pigeon Trembleur Paon, both signi- 

 fying Peacock Pigeon. 



The Fantail Club. 



The Fantail Club was established in the year 1885, chiefly 

 for the purpose of endeavouring to put down the dishonest 

 practice, so common of late, of manipulating Fantails, so that 

 very ordinary birds are manufactured into the semblance of 

 good ones. The adepts at this art have for years succeeded 

 in carrying off the principal prizes, and sold numerous good- 

 looking birds, which, after moulting in their purchasers' pos- 

 session, have turned out ordinary spoon-tailed specimens ; but 

 they have kept the secret of their art so well, that no one 

 can say what methods they employ. Pasteboard, or wire 

 frames, for fixing to the tail during its growth, at the annual 

 moult, is said to be one of the means employed; while extra 

 feathers, fixed into the quills of the natural ones, have actually 

 been discovered in the tails of prize birds. Loading the lower 

 tail feathers with lead, so as to form as complete a circle 

 as possible, is also in vogue. When such frauds are con- 

 stantly practised, honest men get disgusted, and go into 

 some other variety, declining to compete with those who 

 artificially improve their birds. 



The Lace Fantail. 



Lace Fantails, so called from their feathering being similar 

 to that of the Lace Pigeon already referred to, are known 

 in Germany as Seiden Pfautauben, and in France as Pigeons 

 Trembleur Paon de Soie, names signifying Silken Fantails. I 

 believe they are generally white, and were probably produced 

 from the Fantail and Lace Pigeon. The Lace-feathered Fan- 

 tails that have reached us from abroad could only be described 

 as narrow-tailed; but from them, and good specimens of 

 ordinary close-feathered Fantails, Scotch fanciers have pro- 



