27.6 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



black in the pen, which hides their mark- 

 ing and prevents their winning. Hamburgh 

 men are a peculiar set, who have kept much to 

 themselves for pretty nearly half a century, if 

 not more, and it is quite certain that every gOL«d 

 pullet or hen with spangles of the largest size 

 is plucked more or less before she can show her 

 pattern. Anyone can see for himself, in some 

 other breed, how much of any single breast 

 feather is naturally exposed, and that this is not 

 enough to show separately a large Mooney 

 spangle, and there we must leave this particular 

 matter. 



Vulture hocks were largely plucked at one 

 time, but their admission in England has put a 

 stop to that for many years. It is easily de- 

 tected by passing the hand up against the 

 feathers ; if the remainder are felt too stiff and 

 jagged, close inspection will reveal the plucking, 

 either by the holes or the young shoots of new 

 quills. 



The greatest triumphs of the faker are per- 

 haps the insertion of perfect feathers instead of 

 imperfect, especially in regard to the sickles of 

 Hamburghs and Bantams. There 

 False have been men who always treasured 



Sickles. an unusually fine pair of sickles for 



further use, and even now it is done 

 occasionally. The natural quill is cut off about, 

 an inch long, and cleared out, the perfect plume 

 being then inserted in the stump as in a socket. 

 In one case the pair were found fastened in with 

 cobbler's wax ; in another the two were bound 

 round with thread. The more usual plan now 

 is to either fasten the feather in with some 

 transparent cement, or use extremely fine waxed 

 silk with an " imping" needle. This fraud can 

 always be seen on blowing into the roots of the 

 tail, to expose them to view; but a judge cannot 

 be always putting birds under the microscope, as 

 it were, because fraud is perpetrated occasionally. 

 The best ground of suspicion is, perhaps, if a 

 bird exhibiting much gloss generally, appears in 

 the sickles a little dull or faded in comparison. 

 In that case an examination should certainly be 

 made, in all breeds wherein sickles are a leading 

 point. 



The chief other practice which has come 

 under our own notice we may perhaps term 

 " flufSng," or adding to the fluffy appearance of 

 Asiatics. In Cochins especially, 

 Fluffing. great globular masses of soft plum- 



age are highly valued. In a case 

 already alluded to, wherein the Poultry Club 

 had been successful in e.xcluding successively 

 three representatives of one family and of the 

 same yard, amongst other frauds this one was 

 very prominent. In several well-known birds, 



when carefully examined, it was found that ovei 

 large regions of the body the buff plumage 

 had been gone over, feather by feather 

 almost, each being bent back by thumb and 

 finger, or perhaps forceps, and then re-bent in 

 the opposite direction rather higher up, so as to 

 stand out from the body more than naturally, and 

 thus deepen the fluffy mass. It was calculated 

 that one disqualified fowl must have occupied 

 many hours in this treatment. Here, again, the 

 fraud was plain enough when suspicion was 

 aroused ; and the lack of suspicion is the chief 

 reason why such things may go on unpunished 

 for a while, though Nemesis generally comes at 

 last. A minor form of fluffing we would hesitate 

 to call downright fraud, but certainly it is highly 

 objectionable. After washing a Cochin or Light 

 Brahma, it is very easy so to keep working the 

 fluff of the thighs outwards whilst drying, as to 

 make it protrude much more, loose and flossy, 

 instead of lying down naturally. We often see 

 birds so, and much dislike it ; and as this is 

 obvious to the naked eye, we think judges 

 should deduct points for it, rather than allow 

 anything for the supposed fuller fluff of the 

 birds. 



It will be seen that both the judges ana 

 committee of a poultrj' show have very serious 

 responsibility, and that the judges' task, in 

 particular, is no easy one at best 

 Duty of Whatever can lighten it should be 



the Public. most sedulously studied. The press 

 also has its heavy responsibilities, 

 and is waking up more and more to these every 

 day ; some of its representatives rank as author- 

 ities with the best judges in the land. But 

 when all these duties have been discharged, 

 more or less perfectly as the case permits, the 

 exhibiting public still has its share of respon- 

 sibility also. It is not only responsible for 

 using upon occasion the machinerj' ready to 

 hand for the suppression of real fraud, but for 

 keeping up a tone in the fancy adverse to it, and 

 in favour of such effective proceedings. For 

 many years this was much lacking. In our own 

 earlier battles with fraud, our experience too often 

 was that after taking up some flagrant case upon 

 distinct promise of the necessary personal evidence, 

 this was ultimately refused for cowardly or in- 

 terested reasons, and we were left to face the 

 issue unaided by those who alone could ensure 

 full success, and at whose own urgent entreaty we 

 had moved in the matter. It does not lie with 

 people like this to rail at judges, or exhibitors, 

 or committees, or the press. The state of things 

 is neither so good as one could wish, nor nearly 

 so bad as it is often painted ; but such as it may 

 be depends far more upon the great mass of 



