AprU 18 1873. ) 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



form me aud the fancy at large why Mr. Percivall has changed 

 his miud on this subject. Perhaps Mr. Grah:ira -n'ould also 

 kindly state where aud what prizes he himself has won with 

 l)rown-harred birds. 



Mr. Graham says my remark about the black bar on a light 

 body, nearly white, is simply absurd to all who know anything 

 at all about the breeding of Silvers ; if so, how is it that so suc- 

 cessful a fancier as Mr. Graham has never (as far as my personal 

 experience has been, and I have visited many shows) exhibited 

 other than brown-barred birds until he purchased the second- 

 prize pair at the last Crystal Palace Show, Mr. Graham himself 

 exhibiting brown-barred birds there ? The colour of the bar of 

 these birds, too, which Mr. Graham writes up as black, is not 

 black — far from it. At the Crystal Palace Show I personally 

 iieard these birds denounced as not being the proper colour for 

 a Silver Dragoon, and at Birmingham a consultation of several 

 leading fanciers of the midland counties was held at the front 

 of this very pen of birds, and they unanimously pronounced 

 them to be a pair of washed-out Blues with bad-coloured bars. 



Mr. Graham says my want of success in breeding black-barred 

 birds is my want of knowledge how to match them, and pro- 

 ceeds to teU me how the black bar can be produced easily 

 enough ; for his good intentions I am obliged, although my own 

 experience, as will be seen below, has proved his theory to be 

 ■worth nothing. I do not think matching Blue to Silver is very 

 new information ; if there is anything in what Mr. Graham 

 says, the black bar, instead of being the exception, would be 

 the rule. 



For Mr. Graham's information I wiU state that six years ago 

 I commenced breeding Silver Dragoons from a blue-rumped 

 cock, with a distinct and well-defined bar, mated to a Silver 

 hen bred from a Blue ; their offspring were two Silvers with 

 brown bars. These I again matad, one to a blue-rumped bird, 

 and the other to a Silver, and the produce of all were Silvers 

 with brown bars. Again, I put the produce of the last-named 

 blue-rumped bird to a white-rumped Blue ; again the produce 

 had brown bars. I have also crossed the Silver cock bred from 

 the above crosses with a blue-rumped hen, and with the same 

 result. In fact, I may say I have bred them in all ways a fancier 

 ^ould suggest to improve the Silver, at the same time having 

 due regard to a distinct and well-defined bar. For the first four 

 years I never sold a single bird I bred, but purchased others to 

 eross with them, and the results of the six-years breeding have 

 been brown bars. I have in my loft at the present time Blue 

 Silvers with brown bars, all descended from blue-rumped cocks 

 aud Silver hens in the way Mr. Graham suggests, and several 

 of them I can trace back for four generations bred from Blues. 

 On this experience I based my remarks that it was next to an 

 impossibility to produce a light body, nearly white, with a 

 black bar. Not only is this my experience in Dragoon-breeding, 

 but a friend of mine, who has had twenty years' experience 

 before me, says his views coincide with mine. If Mr. Graham 

 will only look back, he will find I was breeding Silver Dragoons 

 a long time before he commenced to exhibit Dragoons. 



I wiU also add, I can breed black-barred birds as easily as I 

 have my brown-barred ones ; but the question'at issue is. Which 

 is right, the brown bar which won all the prizes formerly, and, 

 consequently, which all fanciers have followed for years past, 

 or the black bar, which has no precedent to back it up, and is 

 only wanted by one or two who wish to lead the fancy ? — H. 

 Allsop, 51, Sjjencer Street, Binningham. 



BARB AND FANTAIL PAIEED AND BREEDING. 



I FIND authors almost invariably agree that the offspring of a 

 Barb and a Fantail will be mules, aud therefore will not breed 

 with another Pigeon. There is at present in this to'w'n a Black 

 cock Pigeon, the offspring of a Black Barb cock and a White 

 hen Fantail, which has bred several nests of young ones, and is 

 still breeding with a common Dovehouse Pigeon. I do not 

 question the authority nor the grounds on which these writers 

 rest their opinions, but the above are facts that have come under 

 my own observation. — A. G. 



[A mistake is easier made than rectified. An iintnith, even 

 when proved to be such, is stiU believed in ; sometimes, as in 

 the above instance, because the false statement has necessarily 

 been made first, and the correction has not reached as far nor 

 been read by so many. Wilkes once said, referring to his dis- 

 advantage of an ugly small-pox-marked face, that still, such was 

 the charm of his manners, "he was only half an hour behind 

 the handsomest man in England." I have always doubted that, 

 because half an hoiu's start is sometimes everything iu the race 

 of life. Thus, two friends were sweet upon the same lady — (a 

 fact this). One told the other he meant to go at once aud pro- 

 pose to her. His friend advised him to go first aud buy a pair 

 of gloves and a new hat and tie, as he would look better and be 

 imore likely to be accepted. Taking the advice, he went off to 

 Jmitter, glover, and draper. Newly rigged out, he was half an 

 hour after at the lady's door, where he met his fiieud coming 

 <rai with a smiling face. " What have you been here for ?" said 



he. " Well, I have been and proposed to Miss M and am 



accepted ; you are half an hour too late." Now what has all 

 this to do with Barbs breeding with Pigeons ? Well, both are 

 in the Dove line, at any rate. 



This error in regard to Barbs breeding with Fantails and 

 their young not being prolific, is happily not a mistake of the 

 old English -m-iters on fancy Pigeons. They were not, indeed, 

 very good naturalists, as they stated that all the varieties of 

 fancy Pigeons were derived from the Stock Dove, whereas they 

 come from the Rock Dove ; still, they did not state that any 

 varieties would do other than cross-breed productively. Some 

 French writers are said to have stated that the Tiu'bit will not 

 cross-pair successfiiUy with other Pigeons, and, says Mr. Brent, 

 " Some German writers ailirm that the cross between the Fan- 

 tail and Barb are unproductive inter se, from which they argue 

 that they must be distinct species, and not mere varieties." 

 Both these are simple mistakes. A friend of Mr. Brent's proved 

 the cross to be easy and fertile, and Mr. Charles Darwin did the 

 same. It is simply a case of a correction not having been as 

 extensively circulated as a blunder. The lie has had the advan- 

 tage of half an hour's start. I daresay some one, twenty years 

 hence, will read and beUeve the untruth, and not know that it 

 is such. I have thought it right, therefore, prominently to 

 notice " A. G.'s " letter, and not merely put an answer of a few- 

 words iu the Letter Box. — Wiltshire Rector.] 



EVEN-MARKED CANARIES AND MULES. 



In Mr. Wallace's article which appeared in your issue of March 

 14th, he states that a bird with even eye marks alone, even 

 wing marks alone, or with both even eye and wing marks, should 

 be considered as Even-marked ; yet I do not find that he urges 

 the same reasons for the cap-marked bird — that is to say, al- 

 though he asks for a bird cap-and-wing-marked to be considered 

 as Even-marked, he does not state that a bird with a cap mark 

 alone should be considered as Even. I reaUy think any fancier 

 would scout such being allowed ; in fact, it would be neither 

 more nor less than a ticked or an uneven-marked bird. 



When I stated that if a cap mark were allowed in an Even- 

 marked bird, so should a saddle-mark, I meant to imply that 

 both were foul marks, inasmuch as they often connect, and 

 always destroy, what might otherwise have been perfect 

 markings. 



I stiU maintain that the standard of even marks in Canaries 

 should be the same as in Mules. I can assure Mr. Wallace that I 

 have seen excellent-marked Mules with beautifully formed caps 

 that were never noticed in an exhibition, even by judges whoat 

 the same exhibition had awarded prizes to cap-marked Canaries 

 in an Even-marked class. 



There are many reasons in my opinion why cap-marked bii'ds 

 should not compete as Even-marked birds, one of which is that 

 exhibitors who cannot attend an exhibition will be at a loss to 

 know to which stamp of marks (cap or eye marks) the judge or 

 judges have awarded the prizes, and if inclined to claim a bird 

 will hesitate for fear of being served in a similar manner to 

 Messrs. Wallace & Beloe, when they claimed the second-prize 

 Even-marked Buff Norwich at a show held in Middlesbrough, 

 December 31st, 1869, with the expectation of getting an eye- 

 and-wing-marked bird, when they were disappointed to find it 

 cap-and-wing-marked, while their own birds exhibited in the 

 same class were behind it, although they were eye-and--«Tng- 

 marked. 



The only way I can see to clear up the mystery which Mr. 

 Wallace states hangs over cap-marked birds, is to decide which 

 of the two kinds of markings — eye or cap — has to be considered 

 as part of an Even-marked bird ; when this is done, let the dis- 

 carded mark be for ever considej-ed as uneven. So long as cap 

 and eye-marked birds contend together there will be imcertainty 

 and dissatisfaction. — R. H-iwm.\n. 



LIGURIAN VERSUS COMMON BEES. 



As I see one of your correspondents asks whether the " Li- 

 gm-ian is superior to the common black bee," I send my last 

 year's experience of the former, and if the same can be reported 

 of the black bee I shall not have so strong a preference for my 

 favourites. 



This time last year I had four stocks of Ligurian bees in 

 Woodbury frame hives, and at the end of October I made up 

 twenty stocks in the same description of hive, and all strong. 

 Besides these, I had three swarms which I joined to weak 

 stocks. At the same time I took about 80 lbs. of honey, leaving 

 ample store in the hives. On examining these hives on March 

 27th, I found all of them in first-rate condition, having much of 

 last year's honey still in store, and in many of the hives I found 

 quantities of drones hatched. If this month be fine I shall not 

 be surprised if there be more than one natural swarm before 

 the 1st of May. 



I give a decided preference to natm-al over artificial swarms 



