AprU 23, 1372. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEE. 



357 



an ordinary aviary ; they show off to much greater advantage 

 ■when at large at a country home in a pure atmosphere, where 

 tliey can be seen foraging for their lining. It is there that they 

 command our admiration to the full, for having a hardy consti- 

 tution they thrive -n-onderfully, and look irell and do well on 

 liumble fare. Picture in youi' mind's eye five pairs of each 

 variety of Magpies only (forty bu'ds) strutting actively about on 

 a well-trimmed lawn, or even at a homely farmstead, in Ueu of 

 the thorough mongrels which are allowed to prey upon the 

 farmer's grain, consuming ten times their value in a year, whilst 

 some of the hardy, beautiful, proUflc, and also profitable varie- 

 ties are subjected to confinement for life, or partial extermina- 

 tion, through want of full appreciation by oui- country cousins, 

 who, having greater facilities than townsfolk, should cultivate 

 our domestic Pigeons \vith much more care and attention. — 

 J. \Y. Ludlow, Secretary^ Bir/ninghain Columbarian Society. 



CRYSTAL PALACE GAME AND BANTAJI SHOW. 



Tma Show, which opens to-day and will be continiied through- 

 out the whole of to-morrow, is, we understand, the first of its 

 kind. It owes its origin in a great measm-e to the exertions of 

 Mr. Harrison Weir, who no doubt looks with satisfaction upon 

 the goodly number of pens at present ranged along the middle 

 of the northern nave. In spite of this being the breeding season, 

 when fanciers do not care to send their birds from home or sub- 

 ject them to unnecessary excitement, there is nevertheless a 

 most satisfactory earnest of what this Show would reaUy be 

 were it held during a more favoiirable time of the year. 



Among the special classes we remarked a grand hybrid Tiukey, 

 obtained between the OceUated Turkey of Honduras and the 

 wild Turkey of North Ameiica, a Reeves' Pheasant, two fine 

 Silver cock Pheasants, two pairs of Chinese Quails, five pens of 

 Black Game, and a hybrid between the Gold and Silver Phea- 

 sant. Of the Bantani and Game classes we cannot speak mi- 

 nutely here, but the entries for both were numerous and good. 

 In closing, we would congi-atulate the promoters of this interest- 

 ing Exhibition upon the immediate fruits of their endeavours, 

 and we hope that they will in future meet with success propor- 

 tionate to their increasing exertions. 



AMONG THE CLEAR JONQUES. 

 1 yulXt. seen the sun shine, and I have been among the Canaries, 

 l^ot that the sun doesn't shine here after a fashion, and do its 

 best to make things look bright and cheerful ; but what with 

 the biting east winds and our humid, murky atmosphere, his 

 kindest endeavours seem thwarted, and it is late before the 

 country seems to wake up from its long winter sleep. It was 

 five o'clock in the morning when the mail dropped me at Peter- 

 borough en rou^e for Norwich ; and as I wended my way through 

 the quiet little town to the station on the far side, it seemed as 

 if I were in a place many degrees farther south, where the season 

 was a month in advance of us at our home in the north. Ex- 

 posed as we are to the strong breezes of the German Ocean, the 

 mild balmy air of the south is something to welcome, while 

 the quietness of an agricultural district is an agreeable change 

 from the stirring activity of a manufacturing town. The two 

 hours I had to stay before I could go on to Noi-wich were under 

 the circumstances not tedious. I should have liked some break- 

 :fast, certainly, but where to get it was the question. My explora- 

 tion of the cathedral town resulted in my arriving at the con- 

 clusion that it did not rise so early as five. A woman who was 

 setting out some breakfast crockery in the market place, two 

 street sweepers, and an attendant with a huge watering-pot, 

 -whose function it was to lay the dust, and myself, had sole pos- 

 session of the streets. Four hours' further run by Wisbech, 

 Lynn, and Dereham, through a country which, if not very 

 Tomantic in its scenery, had, on that sunny spring morning, 

 great beauties for me, and I was landed at the old city I had not 

 visited for twenty year's. Twenty years, and especially the last 

 twenty, make great changes in towns. Some become grown out 

 of aU knowledge, and where stood green lanes, and gardens, and 

 corn fields, now stand long streets of houses, thickly tenanted 

 l)y the increasing population which follows in the track of 

 manufacturing enterpi-ise. Nor is Noi-wich any exception to the 

 Tule, though its old castle, and the cathedral with its lofty taper- 

 ing spire, still stand in the same place, and greet one Uke old 

 friends. I have many old memories connected with the city and 

 neighbourhood. I used to spend my vacations in a small village 

 about midway between there and Cromer. I remember that 

 inarket day used to be a great institution, and we — that is, 

 *' B. B. " and I {I believe they were afraid to leave us at home), 

 iised to occupy the back seat of the dog-cart. And I put it can- 

 didly to anyone who has sat with a lady on the back seat of a 

 <log-cart, even when the foot-board has been chained up to the 

 last link, whether there is not a risk of her slipping off, and 

 whether it does not become a duty to see that she doesn't? I 

 iilways attended to that duty. Those were jolly days. The last 

 time I was in the neighbourhood it was in the fall of the year. 



I strolled into Marsham churchyard early one morning. I had 

 two reasons for doing so ; one was, that holding on so tight on 

 that dog-cart had ended at Marsham church, and I was just a 

 little wishful to take a peep at the old pile again ; the other was, 

 I expected to see the sexton at work at his gloomy caUing. He 

 was down in a deep grave he had dug with extreme care, and 

 was busy removing the soil from the inscription plate on a coffin 

 which had lain there many years. That day the genial soul 

 who used to drive us to Norwich on market days was laid with 

 his wife. I have never seen the old place since. 



And I have been among the Canaries. Without disparage- 

 ment to breeders in other towns I think I may safely say that 

 Norwich is the head-quarters of the bird which bears its name, 

 and many a golden gem which has figured as the property of a 

 speculative Canary exhibitor first saw daylight in the " mew " 

 of some Norwich weaver or shoemaker. The Canary interest in 

 Noi*wich is very conservative, and I was indebted to Mr. J. 

 Mackley for the privilege of being admitted within the charmed 

 circle. Many of the breeders, certainly the principal of them, 

 are united in clubs with some very stringent rules as to dispos- 

 ing of high-bred birds. Indeed, the truism that money will buy 

 anything hardly holds good of a hard-working Norwich weaver's 

 stock birds. They are a class of men w^hose ambition is to pro- 

 duce those wonderful birds which are the object of admiration 

 at our shows ; and just in proportion as they will deprive them- 

 selves of luxuries, if not of necessaries, to carry out the object 

 of their lives, so in proportion are they not to be tempted by 

 money to part with birds which it has taken them possibly 

 years to bring to perfection. With men of this stamp there 

 is a point, to go beyond which is to insult. Mr. J. Mackley, how- 

 ever, who takes immense interest in the fancy, and keeps a 

 watchful eye over it, smoothed over all difficulties, and I as- 

 cended many a staircase and crossed the threshold of many a 

 sanctum sanetomm, which I never should have done without his 

 "open sesame." One cottage I have in my eye. Down-stairs, 

 sitting on a stool winding off silk and detecting the shghtest 

 flaw in the thread as it passed through her delicate fingers, was 

 a decent "canny" woman sun-ounded by such of nine children 

 as remained at home. Up-stairs, up a winding lighthouse kind 

 of staircase, was the piece of fm-niture to be found in almost 

 evei-y wayside cottage — the loom, on which are manufactured 

 the sUks and other stuffs for which the city of Norwich is famed. 

 Here the head of the house was busy on a piece of poplin, of 

 which he told me he could weave 15 yards in a day. But they 

 were singing away through a thin wood partition which separated 

 the bird-room from the workshop, and how was it possible I 

 could make any show of taking much interest in manufacturing 

 statistics, when I knew I was on the eve of penetrating some of 

 the great mysteries of the fancy ? It's no use teUiug you what I 

 saw, for I came away as I went, with my empty store cage 

 under my arm. But I got a pair next day, and an odd hen — 

 sister to some great celebrity, whose pedigree was duly chronicled 

 in mysterious notches on her flights. — 'W'. A. Bl.ujston. 

 (To be continued.) 



EARLY SWAEM. 



The following may prove useful to your readers, and may 

 afford an opportunity of determining whether the occun-ence is 

 without precedent. On the 11th inst., on looking round my 

 bee house as usual before leaving it for the night, I discovered 

 a cluster of bees, resembUng a small swarm, beneath a board 

 placed at an angle above the pitch board of the hives. This was 

 about 6 P.M. I immediately took a frame, fitted -nith comb, from 

 a Woodbury hive I had in readiness, and having placed a little 

 syi-up upon the comb, I brushed on the bees with a feather. The 

 lateness of the evening and the low temperature had so be- 

 numbed many of the bees that I did not succeed in hiving more 

 than one-half, probably in number not more than five hundred, 

 the rest fell, and died from exposure. About an hoiir afterwards, 

 on close examination, I discovered the queen apparently in 

 perfect health, and seemingly contented in the midst of the 

 bees saved. 



I am now feeding with syrup, and hope to found an early 

 colony. Can any of your readers teU me if I am likely to succeed? 

 I was afraid at first t had lost a queen from one of my box hives, 

 but such does not appear to be the case, as perfect harmony 

 seems to reign within. I may add two out of five hives in my 

 bee house are fuU to overflowing, and that comb-building has 

 already commenced. — John B. C.vks, Littleha}nj}ton. 



BrBMiNGH-ui Summer Poultey Show.— This is to be held in 

 June. We hope it may be a success, but we have no par- 

 ticulars at present. 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



DccKs' Eggs UsTEKTrLE (A Disappointed Pnultry-woman).— The bilds 

 being " Tery fat," not only has a tendencj to prevent fertilit.v, but to mterlere 

 witb laving, and to endanger the lite o( the layer. This appUes to burds of 

 all kinds. 



