156 THE PRACTICAL PIGEON KEEPER. 



longest neck is the most beautiful and the most esteemed." 

 Now as the longest neck must necessarily cause the tail to be 

 carried farthest back, this sentence is incontestable proof that 

 the Scotch or upright tail, not the forward, pot-lid style, was 

 the accepted bird in Moore's day. 



At present, as we think, the Fantail is about correct ; the 

 deficiency in the tails of some of the Scotch birds of some 

 years ago having been counteracted. The body is very short 

 and plump, the neck comparatively very long, though it and 

 the head must appear fine. The neck is carried so extremely 

 far back and curved (" like that of a swan," as Moore justly 

 compares it), that a point near the junction with the head lies 

 on or nearly on the back, at the root of the tail. This wUl be 

 explained by the engraving ; but the " motion," or what some 

 vulgarly call the " nerve," can only be described. It consists 

 of a vibration, or heaving up and down and forward and back, 

 the bird being unable to keep stUl, and occasionally walking 

 backwards from the same uncontrollable impulse. The legs are 

 rather short, and when excited the bird walks on tip-toe. A good 

 bird carries its head at times below the level of its breast, and. 

 when with -this is combined a good "strut," this is called "good 

 carriage." The tail, we consider, should be as nearly as possible 

 flat, but not carried at aU forward of a perpendicular plane — 

 any leaning forward not only destroys the other properties, but 

 all aesthetic beauty, and we hold that this is an important 

 consideration. When spread, the taU should be as nearly as 

 possible a perfect circle, with the exception of two or three 

 inches wide at the bottom, through which pass the ends of the 

 flight-feathers, which must be carried low. Such a tail will 

 need at least twenty-four feathers (the ordinary number in 

 pigeons is twelve), and twenty-six or twenty-eight are better. 

 Forty or more feathers are recorded, but always make too 

 heavy a tail, which is scarcely ever carried straight. A large 

 bird can carry more feathers than a small ore, but a good 



