The Fan tail. 



'93 



their immediate descendants. The battle for precedence between the two 

 breeds — for they are distinct breeds — then commenced, and it has ended 

 in a compromise. English fautail fanciers have crossed their large 

 motionless birds with the small Scotch shaking breed, and Scotch fanciers 

 have bred for taO, so that both can now meet on the show bench with 

 more equality than formerly. For my own part I Kke one or two of the 

 old breed of small, round, compact, close-feathered, dancing birds, which 

 I never tire of admiring, as they are ever on the move. At the same 

 time, they are seldom seen with the tails necessary for show birds, to 

 breed which is the difBculty. They breed very true, although they have 

 often been crossed to make them entirely white, and, except for the 

 size, shape, and carriage of tail, they can so easily be bred good, that 

 they present little scope for competition. 



I shall now describe what I consider constitutes a perfect fantail, the 

 properties of which may be reckoned to consist of size, make and shape, 

 carriage, tail, and feather. 



(Size. — Other things being equal, I prefer the fantail as small as possible. 

 I weighed a cock and hen, matured birds, of the Dundee shaking breed, 

 and they were 12oz. and lOoz. respectively. The hen was extra small, 

 the cock of an average size. 



Make and Shape. — Taking size into account, all the fantaUs I have 

 ever seen, excepting one pair, were of the same formation in head and 

 beak, viz., the common type. Cocks, from their sex, look rather coarser 

 than hens. The head is long, narrow, and flat, the beak long and 

 slender. The beak wattle should be small, and there should be no eye 

 wattle. Smooth legs are necessary in the show fantaU, and nearly all 

 fanciers prefer smooth heads. When the head is crested, the crest is 

 generally a neat peak, and I never saw a shell crested one. I do not 

 disUke a peak crest on a good fantail, though it necessarily takes from 

 the rounded outline of the head and neck. I once saw a pair of white 

 fantails with rather round heads and shorter and thicker beaks than 

 usual, but they were not good birds otherwise. I believe they were 

 imported from the Continent. Except for the flights, tail, and legs, the 

 shape of the fantail should be as round, compact, and close feathered as 

 possible. It should look like a pigeon pressed into the shape of a ball. 

 A peculiarity generally found in the best shakers is the split breast, an 

 indentation running up the middle of it, which ia most apparent in birds 







