The Fantail. 191 



peaked heads and feathered legs. I knew of whole reda and yellows in 

 India, but never saw any. They belonged to a doctor in the Govern- 

 ment service at Dinapore, and at his death were advertised for sale, but 

 before I could secure them, as I intended doing, they were bought by 

 a native gentleman. I heard that fine coloured reds and yellows could 

 be got in the north west provinces of India. 



Moore mentions having seen black, blue, red, and yellow pieds. Three 

 of the old paintings of pigeons in my possession, already referred to, 

 are of fantaUs. The best is a completely turbit-marked or saddle-backed 

 yellow, while 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 pur- 

 chased by a certain nobleman. My two paintings of almonds represent 

 more than narrow-tailed shakers, but they do not come up to the yeUow 

 saddle back, which is a very good fantail. The red and yeUow 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 neighbourhood. Prom forty to fifty years 

 ago there was imported into Dundee — from where is not certain, 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 originator 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-taUed 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 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 

 only a day or two ago (March, 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 years ago, and about ten years afterwards I had 

 another red-sided cook of extraordinary style. The latter could never 



