324 
The Illustrated Book of Plgeons. 
have always been favourites. My oldest and most esteemed friend in the fancy, Mr. Huie, got a 
pair from this cross, and has stuck to them ever since, and has bred some of the finest I ever saw. 
Some years afterward I got a red Saddle-back cock, I think an Indian bird, though he had no peak. 
He was a bird of fine style, and I bred many fine ones of that colour and marking, and though it 
is over twenty years since, they still appear now and then, as well as the original black Saddle-back, 
and they are always first-rate in quality. Mr. Huie bred some of the red Saddle-backs that I never 
saw excelled, so small and close in feather, with good tails and perfection of style 
“ By-and-by they got spread over Scotland, but they are all from the old Saddle-backs that 
‘came in a ship.’ Their small size, fine neck, head, and beak, and close feathering, make them, in 
my opinion, superior to all other Fantails I have ever seen. They show such breeding, such an 
almost endless variety of attitudes and motions, that a fancier can look at them for hours, while 
for those with merely big or fan tails, a glance is sufficient ; you will not see more though you look 
at them for a month ; they are too large and coarse in body, head, and neck, though the tail is 
larger, so large that in a show-pen the bird is hid under it, and it requires stirring up to show that 
there is life under such a canopy of feathers. Our birds, as I have already said, must be very small, 
with fine head and necks, and the breast very prominent and round. The head and neck must 
be thrown back with ease till they quite fill up the back, the head resting against the root of the 
tail. The motion is not merely tremulous, as in most Fantails, but is more of a convulsive heaving 
of the neck and breast, and then keeping it quiet and running backwards. A good bird, when 
nearly on a level with the eye, and the breast towards the observer, shows only the round breast 
— the head is quite out of sight. 
“ The English fanciers’ great objection to them is that they have not the flat tail. I admit that 
they have not, and will no doubt surprise and shock many when I say that I think they look fully 
as well without it, that is, when they have the best form of the arched tail large and well spread. 
Some fanciers say, as it is the Fantail, the tail is above everything, and must be as like a fan as 
possible — this I think puerile ; some fanciers I have heard say that the crop in Cropper or Pouter 
was the great property, from the name. The flat tail, when viewed in front, would look very well 
if the bird possessing them were well up in other points ; but I contend that when looked at 
in a side view or profile, the arched tail is superior, even supposing the birds equal in other 
properties, which I have never yet seen the flat-tailed ones to be. There are all the signs of high 
breeding in the little birds, and so much show , that they must gain ground with all genuine fanciers. 
They have one provoking thing about them, though it is caused by their superiority ; that is, the 
difficulty of keeping them in good order, from the excessive nervous action by which they spoil 
their tails through backing up against walls and the sides of their pens. They require no par- 
ticular treatment, but one thing I have observed, that though hardy birds, and good as breeders 
and feeders, when they get ill they scarcely ever get over it ; they seem to go down without an 
effort. 
“ The antail is, when fine, one of the best and most interesting of our fancy pigeons, in my 
opinion ranking next after the three aristocratic breeds of Pouters, Carriers, and Short-faces, though 
no doubt many will differ from me in this. India is generally supposed to be the home of the 
Fantail. I have had them direct from friends repeatedly, and seen hundreds besides from that 
part of the world, but none of them were like our Scotch birds. Many have good tails, and a few 
good style, but they all look big and loose-feathered, and nearly all have the peak head, which, in 
my opinion, destroys the fine head and neck so desirable in a Fantail, as, with the peak head, there 
is always a mane or ridge down the back of the neck, which makes it look thick — a great fault in a 
P'antail. Some fanciers say that Fantails cannot have too short legs ; this I cannot quite agree 
