JOUEXAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Api-U 11, 1873. 



(R. S. 5.). — 1, Lei>tospenmim scopai-ium; 2, L. lauifjerum. tj. D.). — l,ScoIo- 

 pendriiun vujgare vai-. alatum ; 2, S. uudiUatmu ; 3, AspiOiam aculeatuni ; 

 4, Cjstopteiis fragUis ; 6, The Silver Fem, Gj-muogiamnia tai tarea. 



POULTRY, BEE, AND PIGEON OHEOKECLE. 



JUDGING POULTEY. 



I HEARTILY agree with "Beahjia's" proposal that our best 

 qualified judges should consult together and furnish breeders 

 ■with a standard of excellence for each kind of fowl. At present 

 the standards set up by different judges vary so much that a 

 bird considered first-class by one is often almost condemned by 

 another. I feel certain that shoiild our recognised judges con- 

 descend to furnish the desired information, all true fanciers will 

 wilhngly pay a fair price for it, so as to remunerate them for 

 their trouble. 



I hope that Mr. "Wright's proposal to form a national poultry 

 society wiU not be allowed to fall through, as all amateurs must 

 feel that it is much needed. If it is established we shall then 

 have a head to look ivp to, the same as Pigeon fanciers have in 

 that -valuable institution the Birmingham Columbarian Society. 

 — C. L. Shabmak. 



BEOWN EED GAME BANTAMS. 

 I CANNOT pass by Mr. Jeffries' letter in j-our Journal of last 

 week, -with respect to more classes for the various breeds of 

 Bantams, without making a few remarks. I am not a breeder of 

 Blacks, so I •n'ill say nothing about them except this, that they 

 seem to have increased very rapidly the last two or three years, 

 and certainly deserve a separate class. My motive in v\Titing 

 this is to di'aw attention to the Brown Red Game variety, which 

 is now becoming veiy popular ; my opinion is, that they deserve 

 a class quite as much as the Blacks ; and how very seldom we 

 see theiu hy themselves except at one or two of the leading 

 shows, at which almost evei-y variety has a separate class WiU 

 not fanciers of this variety do something for their favourites? 

 Surely Mr. Jeffries' offer ought not to be put on one side. I feel 

 sure if some of our well-known breeders would take the matter 

 in hand, something might be done to establish a class for this 

 n?fflefted variety at most, if not all, of our leading shows. — 

 J. E. T. 



SILVEE DEAGOONS' BAES. 



In answer to Mr. AUsop as to the colour of Silver Dragoons' 

 bars, as I stated before, they should be black. Mr. Allsop 

 strongly goes in for brown bars, on the principle that the colour 

 most easily obtained must be con'ect. He also says that, to 

 produce a bird with a light body nearly white, it is next to an 

 impossibUity to obtain the black bar. This is simplj' absurd to 

 all who know anything at all about the breeding of Silvers ; the 

 Dragoons with black bars exhibited at the Crystal Palace and 

 IBirmingham were much lighter and silver-like than those ex- 

 hibited with brown bars, and the contrast, being greater, has a 

 most pleasing effect. The reason of his want of success in 

 breeding black-barred Silvers is his want of knowledge how to 

 match them. At the same time I do not wish to keep it all to 

 myself, so shall be glad to tell him how to proceed. In con- 

 firmation of my view, Mr. Percivall, one of our oldest and most 

 successful breeders of the Dragoon, has long since expressed his 

 opinion that Silver Dragoons should undoubtedly have black 

 bars, and that there is no difficulty in breeding them. It is 

 most easily done by matching a sound-coloui'ed Blue cock, blue- 

 riimped (one with the bar well defined, and good in colour), to 

 a SUver hen. — Feank Gbailvji, Birl;enliead. 



HEMP SEED A PIGEON POISON. 

 In your article on Pigeons Going Light, "Wiltshtre Eectoe" 

 concludes with, "Beware of hemp seed." I can say with fervour. 

 Amen. Experienced old bii-ds, and especially those which have 

 once been through the fire, may eat it occasionally with impunity ; 

 hut woe to the young bird that makes a full meal upon it, eatiug 

 it indiscriminately. My experience proves it to either kill or 

 cure — of such recklessness. I have kept Pigeons for nearly 

 twenty years, and, oh ! the multitudes of young bii-ds I have 

 lost through giving them a first full meal of nothing but hemp 

 — many never look up afterwards. Nearly aU samples contain 

 small pale green seeds, as if umipe, which are suie to kill. — 

 T. Jones, York, 



EABBITS AT NOETHAMPTON SHOW. 

 I NOTICE some remarks relative to the judging of the Babbits 

 at Northampton, the meaning of which, from their very inco- 

 herent expression, it is difficult to di\-ine. In their conclusion 

 Mr. Hudson states " he declines exhibiting at any show where 

 any but a competent person is appointed judge." This seems to 

 cast a stigma on Mr. Eayson, who acted in that capacity there, 



and who is well known to be one of the best general judges of 

 Rabbits we liave, and certainly no one iu that fancy has done 

 more to elevate its position than he has. I regret tfiat anj'one 

 should cause to be put in print mere hearsay, which in all proba- 

 bility, if investigated, would amount to nothing. I was not at 

 the Northampton Show, neither did I exhibit Rabbits there, but 

 this much I may say, that personally I have known Mr. Rayson 

 for years, and have no hesitation iu stating he is not the man to 

 be biassed in giving an award. — W. Massey, Spalding. 



E\"ENLY-MAEKED CANAEIES AND MULES. 



Refeerinc. to Mr. Ha-mnan's comments in yom- publication 

 of the 4th inst. upon my former article on the above subject, I 

 beg to observe that bird-fanciers experience considerable diffi- 

 culty in knowing what to do with a bird evenly marked on each 

 wing, with an oval cap. It seems to be a species of chameleon in 

 the fancy as regards its general classification. At one show it is 

 considered an Evenly-marked bii-d, whilst at another an Un- 

 evenly-marked bird, and the fanciers who possess specimens of 

 this variety are often in a complete dilemma how to act. How 

 a bird witli an elliptic cap and perfectly even wings can be re- 

 garded as an Unevenlj'-marked biid is something, I must confess, 

 that passes my comprehension of uniformity and regularity. I 

 look upon it as one of those innovations of an early and inex- 

 perienced " fancy" that requires to be exploded. Mr. Hawman ■ 

 tells us that some of the Yorkshire and Lancashire fanciers 

 formerly regarded a four-marked bird with a dark feather on one 

 side of its tail, as a bird more worthy of esteem than a pertect 

 specimen of that class, their idea being that a six-marked bird 

 W'as the standard of perteetion. I think the laws relating to 

 capped birds have emanated from the same school, and as they 

 have abolished the idea respecting the tail marks, I think they 

 would do equally well to apply the same princiijle to the capped 

 birds. For my i>art I regard all dark tail feathers as superfluous 

 appendages, and as such I would treat them. Of course I would 

 regard a broken-capped bird in the same light as a bird having 

 one heavily-marked wing and one lightly marked — i.e., an irre- 

 gularly or unevenly-marked bird. 



With regard to Mules, I must differ from Mr. Hawman, inas- 

 much as they are exceptional. If a Mule had a cap on its head 

 it woukl certainly be intercepted with the orange band that 

 sui-rounds its lull, and in many instances extends over a very 

 con.sidtial'li' pcrlion of the head : hence the form of the mark- 

 ing would be broken, and consequently the bird regarded as 

 Unevenly marked. I cannot see how Mr. Hawman can regard 

 a bird with a dark saddle in the same light as an evenly-capped 

 bird. I never knew anyone regard a bird with a dark saddle as 

 Evenly marked. There is simply no question on the point; 

 whereas the bhxl in question is a very debatable subject, and I 

 believe that if the " ballot system " were adopted I should have 

 a large majority in my favour. 



There is another matter to which I should like to call atten- 

 tion, and that is to the definition of the word " variegated." It 

 appears to mean with some committees " Evenly marked," 

 whilst with others it is regarded as diametrically opposite, and 

 I must give my vote with the believers in the latter interpreta- 

 tion, for I cannot see what diversity of colour has to do with 

 " even marking." Plain terms should be adoijted thus : — Evenly- 

 marked or Unevenly-marked, if a distinction is intended; or in 

 the case of Mules where the two classes are intended to be 

 blended, I would say Marked or Variegated, and to mean marked 

 in any way or anywhere, leaving the judge to act to the best of his 

 judgment. Until this simplification in the classifying of birds 

 for shows be generally adopted, much annoyance and dissatis- 

 faction will be experienced. 



As the majority of Canary-fanciers are working men — the 

 backbone and sinew of our country, who have to toil hard for 

 their daily bread, and have not time to study and decipher 

 complicated terms, I would recommend all secretaries to sim- 

 plify their schedules, and to ado^it a uniformity of terms as far 

 as it possibly can be done. It is time those small bones of con- 

 tention were picked clean and disposed of, for until they are we 

 cannot expect to sail smoothly and pleasantly on the bosom of 

 oui' spirit-absorbing fancy. — B. C. W-vllace, Berwick-on-Tweed. 



BIRD MAEKET OF ST. PETEESBUEG. 



One of the most interesting places for the stranger to visit, iu 

 this world of markets, is that of the Tshukiu Dvor, where the 

 birds are sold. Two long rows of booths are full of living speci- 

 mens of ornithology; Pigeons, Fowls, Geese, Duclts, Swans, 

 Larks, Bullfinches, Siskins, and hundi'eds of other singing 

 birds, are there collected, and form the most pictm'esque and 

 variegated menageries that can be imagined. Each booth is of 

 wood and open at the front, so that the whole of its contents 

 may be seen at once by the passing stranger, who is saluted 

 with such a concert of cackling, cooing, and warbling, as would 

 suffice to furnish the requisite idyllic supply of melodies for a 

 hundi'ed villages. On the booths many swarms of Pigeons are 



