Tiif. Model Fantail. 
3 2 9 
proper to the Fantail is lost at once ; and if it is carried too high and thrust back, it must be 
passed through the tail, and so “split” it — that is, if the tail is as flat and well carried as it ought to 
be. If the neck is not long enough to enable the bird to throw its head as far back as I have 
described, at all events, the head should be dropped well down, so that the lower mandible seems 
to be buried in the feathers of the breast. It is then also out of the way of the tail. 
“ When a Fantail is excited, or its attention is attracted by anything unusual, the head and 
neck arc shaken violently, jerked backwards and forwards with a sort of convulsive movement, 
continued often for a long time. The Scotch are much more remarkable in this way than the 
English. Some of them, indeed, are scarcely ever at rest. 
“ The tail is the other chief point in the English breed, and to be perfect it should be large, 
the larger the better, spread out quite flat like a fan, circular — i.e., the two sides almost meeting at 
the bottom ; the centre well filled up — i.e., not split, either naturally or by the awkward carriage 
of the head. The feathers individually should be long, broad, strong, and sound in the fibre — 
i.e., not showing any inclination to resemble the Laced Fantail. I rather like a little “ pattern ” 
on the tail — i.e., the extreme ends of the tail-feathers rather frayed or fringed. Such birds are 
generally of the best quality. The feathers should lie flat and evenly over one another (none 
of them being set edgeways), so as to form a neat double row. In number they should not 
be less than twenty-eight, but as many more as the bird can carry nicely. The Birmingham 
Columbarian Society, in an article published by them some years ago, laid down forty, 
arranged in three rows, as the proper number ; but though I have heard of such birds I 
have never seen one. I once had a hen with thirty-eight tail-feathers. I purchased her 
from Mr. Fulton, and I believe she had been imported from India ; and I have often bred 
birds with tails of thirty-six or thirty-seven feathers carried in most orthodox fashion. 
In an exhibition pen the number is of no consequence, provided that the tail is well spread 
and circular, and well filled up all round ; but in the breeding pen a thickly-feathered tail is 
of great value. In the breeding of any animal for any fancy point, if you can get that point 
in excess in either of the parents so much the easier is your task. You have then something 
to spare, instead of something to breed up to, which is a very different matter. 
“ Well, then, having obtained a correctly-formed tail, you must see also that it is correctly 
carried, viz., perpendicularly, or inclined a little forwards ; but never to such an extent as to 
resemble the much-derided pot-lid or an umbrella. A Fantail crawling about with its tail over 
its head, and the fore-part of the breast just touching the ground, is an object scarcely more 
appreciated in England than in Scotland.* 
“ The wings should be carried low; the flights dropped neatly below the tail, their points just 
clear of the ground. A young bird, with a large flat tail, often has great difficulty in keeping its 
flights out of its tail. On alighting, the flights catch in the sides of the tail, and it does not seem 
to know how to extricate them. After wriggling about and turning round and round for a few 
times, it gives it up in despair, and lets them remain as they are. It is a very bad habit, for 
it often spoils the carriage of the bird, causing it to stoop and creep about in an awkward 
helpless way, and it also spoils the tail, the weight of the wings bending the young tail-feathers, as 
they grow, out of their proper place, so that they never afterwards lie evenly. Sometimes 
however, as the young bird grows older it grows wiser, and abandons the trick. It is as well, 
therefore, not to condemn a young one too soon for this fault.f 
* As before stated, we have, years ago, repeatedly seen just such birds with prize cards on their pens ; but at that time the 
Scotch bird was scarcely known out of its own district. — E d. 
f We have already hinted that the flights should be shortened in such a case. 
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