PURCHASE OF EGGS FOR SITTING. 



191 



then, like Dickens' celebrated writer upon 

 Chinese metaphysics, he can " combine his 

 information," which will both inform his mind 

 and be great fun. 



Until a man has thus got the type itself 

 thoroughly into his own mind, he cannot breed 

 it successfully. It is not enough to know the 

 variety when he sees it, or even good birds 

 when he sees them ; he must know definitely 

 what makes these last better than others. That 

 is why we have spoken, advisedly, of one variety, 

 or possibly two varieties but of the same breed. 

 Not only, by attempting more, are all the 

 practical difficulties and problems of breeding 

 and selection increased enormously, so that 

 what might be a pleasure becomes an anxious 

 care burdensome to mind and body, but each 

 one needs the eye to be thoroughly trained in 

 all its points, and some varieties very much bias 

 the eye in regard to others. Old and experi- 

 enced breeders and exhibitors may manage 

 more, but they are constantly studying at shows, 

 and have their past successful experience to 

 guide them ; and even these always make some 

 special study of a fresh breed before they 

 actually meddle with it. At the same time, the 

 intending breeder need not keep away from 

 actual specimens of the fowl he fancies, and this 

 early stageisthe proper one for sittings of eggs, or 

 the purchase of a brood or two of newly hatched 

 chickens, to be reared by hand. If an absolute 

 novice, he will be thus getting his practical 

 knowledge of chicken rearing and some know- 

 ledge of the breed itself at the same time ; can 

 see how the chickens feather and grow up ; will 

 understand the " points " better and better as the 

 birds become familiar to him ; and finally, when 

 full grown, comparing these chickens with prize 

 specimens, will learn the points that need 

 development or improvement, studying system- 

 atically to see wJtere lies the great difference in 

 exhibition value. Cheap specimens unfit for 

 the show pen, but still typical, may be pur- 

 chased and bred from, with the same objects and 

 results. 



In one season and at very small expense, 

 anyone with real aptitude ought thus to have 

 acquired a practical and sound knowledge of 

 the variety he proposes to take up ; 

 Purchase ^^d something also of how the' 



of Eggs. beauties and defects develop them- 



selves as the chickens grow. If he 

 has bought eggs from good breeders, he may 

 probably have a good chicken or two from them 

 in his own yard ; but too much must not be 

 expected from such sources. Many people are 

 utterly unreasonable in regard to sittings of eggs, 

 so much so that some of the best breeders now 



refuse to sell any. Such people expect every 

 Gg^ to hatch, and every sitting to produce at 

 least one if not several " winners," whereas the 

 man who sold the eggs will be well content if 

 out of the many he himself hatches, and which 

 have not travelled, he gets a real winner or two 

 himself for the great shows of the year. Many 

 vendors undertake to "replace unfertile eggs, "and 

 the offer is liberal and fair where such are sold in 

 numbers, from flocks of typical and pure bred 

 but not first prize stock, but a seller of really 

 prize eggs simply cannot afford to do this. We 

 often wonder people do not recollect how we 

 used to hear proverbs about " a hen with one 

 chick," and about " counting chickens before 

 they are hatched," long before eggs for sitting 

 from prize poultry were even thought of. Of 

 real fraud we are sure there is very little, and 

 four or five chickens from good eggs are well 

 worth the price of a sitting, even if there be not 

 one actual winner amongst them. Actual 

 winners must be scarce from the very nature of 

 the case ; but they do occasionally occur, quite 

 often enough to show a really high standard of 

 honour among at least a good number.* Thus a 

 beginner who has purchased eggs may probably 

 have at least a decent bird or two, true to 

 type and of fair quality, at the end of the season, 

 and if he has, we strongly advise entering it at 

 the best show he can manage to attend ; not in 

 the hope of winning (though now and then an 

 agreeable surprise may occur) but that he may 

 compare, on the spot, this best specimen which 

 he can select, with those which do win. He will 

 be a more intelligent critic by this time, and 

 begin to see things ; and the comparison with 

 his own bird, which he has learnt to know, will 

 make it all real, and stamp it on his mind in a 

 way which nothing else can. 



Now at last he is ready to purchase birds, 

 and will be able to do so with some judgment of 

 his own as to their real value. His year, so far 



• As it is many years since we sold a fowl or an egg of any 

 kind, we may without impropriety mtntion a few instances 

 from trie days when we had Dark Brahmas. A pullet repur- 

 chased from our own eggs was in our first-prize pair at Birming- 

 ham in 1S71, and the unpurchased remainder established the 

 purchaser (Mr. John Evans) in a strain that was prominent for 

 three seasons. A cockerel repurchased from another egg 

 customer won second prize at Bristol in a class of forty, and 

 was the father of our cup winner at the Crystal Palace and 

 Birmingham shows of 1872. A hen hatched from our eggs won 

 the cup at Yarmouth in (we think) 1872, was pronounced by 

 the judge the best he ever saw, and purchased by Mr. Horace 

 Lingwood for £20, the highest price given for a single hen up 

 to that date since the early Cochin mania. A cockerel hatched 

 from another sitting of our eggs was purchased by the same 

 gentleman, and expressly mentioned in the Poultry Review as 

 the immediate progenitor of eleven cup and first-prize winners, 

 and of a strain of cockerels which proved almost invincible for 

 years. Similar cases are known to us in cormection with other 

 breeders and varieties of poultry. 



