CHAP. iv.J FANTAILS. EFFECTS OF CEOSSING. 87 



them to be. They may be, and often are, closely kept 

 in cages, or dealers' pens, till they are cramped and 

 out of health. The most robust wild pigeon would 

 become so under the same circumstances. But if fairly 

 used, they are respectably vigorous. It is a mistake 

 to suppose that they are deficient in power of flight, 

 unless their muscles have been enfeebled by long incar- 

 ceration. Their tail is not so much in their way, and 

 therefore not so unnatural (if hard names be allowed to 

 have any force), as the train of the Peacock. It is true 

 the tail of the Fan tail consists, or ought to consist, of 

 thirty-six feathers three times the number which most 

 other Pigeons can boast of; but it is an excellent 

 aerial rudder notwithstanding. A pair of Fantails given 

 me early this spring (1850) by a friend living a few 

 miles distant, were suffered to fly very soon after their 

 arrival here, on the supposition that they could not 

 possibly return home by their own carriage. Nor did 

 they. But they took a very decided flight of half a mile 

 in the direction of their old home, and then finding they 

 could not make out their way, flew back again. Then, 

 instead of nesting in the Pigeon-loft, the cock bird 

 chose to carry his bundle of twigs to the gutter on the 

 roof of our house, in a snug nook just out of the way 

 of the rain-stream ; and they would have hatched there 

 but for the late severe frosts of that season, which 

 addled their eggs. 



When Fantails breed with other Pigeons, in the off- 

 spring sometimes the fan tail entirely disappears, some- 

 times a half fantail remains ; and I am cognisant of a 

 case where, by coupling a true Fantail with such a bird 

 as the last mentioned, the pure race was re-established. 

 It is probable (but I am not able to state it) that in 



