THE FANTAIL AND RUNT. 
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THE PANTAIL. 
This is by some considered to be tlie most elegant of all our do- 
mestic varieties, and it really is a very elegant bird, although at times 
its appearance, in some of the attitudes which it assumes, is most 
grotesque. 
Fantails are generally of a pure snowy white, and this with their 
peculiar way of bending back their someAvhat long necks, until the 
head seems resting amid the feathers of the outspread tail, gives 
them somewhat the appearance of miniature swans. Sometimes 
they have slate-coloured patches on their shoulders like Turbits ; 
and they are occasionally quite black. They are sometimes called 
Broad-tailed Shakers. ' Shakers,' as Willoughby says, * because 
they do constantly shake or wag Iheir heads up and down. Broad- 
tailed, from the great number of feathers in their tails, not fewer 
than twenty-six ; when they walk up and down they do for the most 
part hold their tails erect like a hen or turkey cock.' 
When one of these birds breeds with another kind of Pigeon, the 
broad tail will wholly, or in part, disappear; when the latter is the 
case, it is called a Half Fantail, or a Narrow-tailed Shaker ; the ap- 
pendage may be restored in all its plenitude and beauty by matching 
the half-breed with a true Fantail, whose points of perfection are — 
a neck tapering, and so long, that at times the bird's head will 
nestle amongst the tail feathers ; a full prominent breast, and a tail 
always erect, which should never number less than twenty-four, nor 
more than thirty-six feathers ; if it does, the weight of the tail will 
cause it to droop, which will greatly mar the beauty of the bird. 
THE EUNT. 
This is the largest and heaviest of the domestic varieties, and 
being very prolific, is the best for those who cultivate Pigeons 
exclusively or chiefly for the table ; the weight of one ready for the 
spit sometimes exceeds a pound. 
The Kunts prefer roosting, or sitting on the ground, to perching 
on buildings or strutting on roofs, hence they have been called by 
BufFon Figcons Mondains, or Ground Doves ; it is best to accom- 
modate them with a low house, or resting place, raised but a few 
feet from the ground, and any old rabbit hutch might easily be 
converted into a Runt locker, where they would breed and bring 
forth abundantly. Care must be taken, however, to protect them 
from roving cats, and other four-footed bird- destroyers. 
One thing remarkable about the Runt is its extreme antiquity, 
the notices of them by Pliny and other nearly contemporary writers, 
are but modern records ; for Dr. Buckland enumerates the bones of 
a Pigeon which, he says, must have closely resembled the Spanish 
Runt, among the fossil remains found in a cave at Rochdale. Ever 
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