TYPES OF FANTAILS. 



155 



Scotch Fantails. The English school argued from the name of 

 Fantail that a wide-spread tail must be the cardinal property, 

 and aimed to develop that at all costs. The result was the 

 almost utter loss of what are called carriage and motion, and 

 the development of a huge tail carried forward, almost flat, 

 over the back, like a , ^ . ■.. ^ 



pot-lid ; and to this type >-■•-->• 

 all the prizes went, for a 

 time, at English shows. 

 On the other hand, the 

 breeders of the truer 

 type, or Scotch Fantail, 

 undoubtedly at one 

 time too much dis- 

 regarded tail, though 

 this fault has now been 

 remedied. 



Perhaps the two 

 types have always co- 

 existed to some extent; 

 and the argument which 

 led English breeders 

 astray would never 

 have been listened to 



had amateurs attended more to the faithful guidance of old 

 Moore. He knows the pigeon as the " Broad-tailed Shaker," 

 and gives as the leading characteristics that it " has a beau- 

 tiful, long, thin neck, which bends like the neck of a 

 swan, leaning towards the back ; it has a frequent tremu- 

 lous motion, or shaking in the neck, which is the reason 

 why they are called Shakers." He adds that they are 

 "called by some" Fantails; but still further adds that even 

 in his time there were two sorts. "The one," he says, "has a 

 neck much longer and more slender than the other, but the 



Scotch Fantail. 



