THE SCOTS FANCY 147 



would be very little removed from the bad Belgians of 

 earlier days. That is those Belgians which instead of 

 straight legs had what were known as " sickle legs." 

 The Scots Fancy of to-day must have a fine sleek head, 

 with a long neck, curving gracefully up to the high 

 shoulders on top, and into the chest underneath ; the 

 shoulders, as in the Belgian, must be high and broad ; 

 there must be no hollowness between the shoulders ; 

 the back must run with a curve right into the tail, which 

 must look as though it is a continuation of the back, and 

 must, when the bird is in position, be brought well under 

 the perch ; the chest must be deep through and the under- 

 part of the body must run in a gentle curve therefrom 

 to the tail ; there must be great length of side with the 

 wings tucked well in, and following the line of the back 

 and tail ; the waist must be slim — well cut out. The 

 legs must be long and thighs well covered, lying close to 

 the body. Many birds to-day are long and coarse in 

 feather, which is quite the opposite to what they should 

 be. The increase in size has had much to do with this. 



Many breeders and judges are mad on shoulder, and if 

 a bird owns a good top end it covers a multitude of faults. 

 Speaking generally, the very large birds are coarse in 

 feather, but if they have shoulder, length of side, plenty 

 of drive, and are quick in action, these properties place 

 them over others, which although not quite so large are 

 yet finer and tighter in feather and show their lines of 

 conformation more clearly. 



Amongst the chief faults are coarseness of head, short- 

 ness and stoutness of neck, hollow shoulders, hollow 

 back, stiffness of tail, straightness of legs, roughness and 

 coarseness of feather. These are the most generally 

 seen of the blemishes which mar an otherwise good Scots 

 Fancy. It must not be taken that all these blemishes 

 are to be seen in any one bird that might be styled a 

 good one. Not at all. A bird with all these faults would 

 be a bad one no matter how large it might be or how 

 quick in action. 



Length of neck, length of side, well-filled shoulders 

 and back are properties that require a lot of breeding, 

 and they also are properties hard to retain. 



