372 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



chickens is to place a coop in a warm or sunny 

 situation, with plenty of dry earth below : this 

 being a good deodoriser, keeps the coop fresh 

 and clean with a little attention. It is necessary 

 for good rearing that the chickens should have 

 a good grass run. Where this cannot be given, 

 the best plan is to sow some oats and dig them 

 deep into the ground. The oats will soon sprout 

 and provide some fresh green food, which is so 

 necessary to keep them in good health and con- 

 dition. As to feeding, I find nothing better than 

 Spratt's chicken-food, mixed fresh each day as 

 follows : I break the contents of a fresh raw egg 

 over some of the food, then mi.x it further with 

 boiling water to such a consistency that it will 

 crumble in pieces when given to the chickens. 

 It must not be mixed too moist. After the 

 chickens are about a fortnight old, for a change, 

 a mixture of fine middlings and oatmeal may 

 be mixed in the same way. Be very careful 

 that any meal is quite sweet, not in the least 

 musty, or rancid, or sour, and avoid foreign meal, 

 which is often inferior. It is necessary always 

 to let them have a good supply of coarse sharp 

 sand, or dry road-scrapings, grit being necessary 

 to enable them to digest their food. If the 

 chickens seem at all ailing or sickening, bread 

 soaked in sweet milk is a good change of diet. 

 After a time, an occasional feed of wheat soaked 

 for some hours in water, may be given at night, 

 commencing in small quantities ; and later on 

 some good sound barley may be given for a 

 change. There will, of course, be refuse or waste 

 birds among the broods, breed them how you 

 may ; therefore, as soon as possible select the 

 most promising, and draft out the others for 

 table or other purposes, so that a larger run may 

 be left for the good birds. 



" The necessary process of dubbing is best 

 performed with the bird in the hands of an 

 assistant, who understands the proper way of 



handling a Game fowl. Using a 

 Dubbing pa.ir of surgical scissors, the operator 



Game. cuts first from the back of the 



wattles, taking that part between 

 the blades and cutting towards the beak, being 

 careful not to cut too deeply, or the jaw-bone 

 might be injured. Now that heads are desired 

 so fine, this is best done at si.x months old, 

 leaving the comb till nearer eight months old. 

 To take off the comb, the operator stands in 

 front of the bird, cutting from the beak to the 

 back of the skull, and keeping the scissors firmly 

 down to the head. If the operation is carefully 

 done the wound will heal in a few days, but care 

 must be taken to keep the birds from fighting, 

 as a few minutes' fighting before healing has 

 taken place, might probably cause disfigurement 



for life. It is no us2 dubbing cockerels before 

 runs can be found for them, as those which have 

 agreed before will always fight after it : the 

 operation has so changed their appearance, that 

 they meet as strangers, and will no longer agree. 



" Long training in pens is not good for 

 Game. The best way of training for exhibition 

 is to place a bird in a show-pen for two or 

 three days only at a time, with intervals of 

 three or four days between each time, training 

 them to take food from the hand. Then they 

 should be accustomed to feed from the hand 

 held high up in front of the pen, so as to induce 

 them to stand up, come well to the front, and 

 show off well. In general the bird should be 

 made as tame as possible, when he will not 

 mind being handled, and birds once thoroughly 

 trained never seem to forget it." 



It is usual to trim the heads of Game cocks 

 a little before exhibition, removing with scissors 

 the line of little spiky feathers at the sides of the 

 amputated comb, close to the head, and also the 

 little feathers which project from the face. Some 

 draw out the latter, as is done in Spanish faces ; 

 but in this case they grow again. 



Very few words will be sufficient for the 

 controversy which now and then arises about 

 the operation of dubbing Game. Almost with- 

 out exception the assumed humanitarians have 

 been totally ignorant of Game fowls ; and it is 

 gravely to be regretted that the names of some 

 persons in high position should, by the mistaken 

 representations of people of this kind, have been 

 dragged into a crusade of which they also have 

 not been competent to judge, since they have 

 had no knowledge of the facts and conditions. 

 All these good people forget that dubbing 

 originated when shows were unknown, as a 

 practical necessity, and merely because the 

 fighting cock, when undubbcd, was fatally 

 handicapped in his battle, and suffered continu- 

 ally during his life. The old cockers simply 

 found that a Game cock was saved a far greater 

 amount of suffering, and often death, by being 

 dubbed ; and they dubbed him for this and no 

 other reason : of exhibition they knew nothing 

 at all. Some oral and written evidence that has 

 been quoted from " veterinarians," professing 

 to " prove " that the comb of a fowl, " owing to 

 its profuse supply of nerves, is specially sen- 

 sitive," has on the contrary proved an ignorance 

 on their own part quite extraordinary. Exam- 

 ination under the microscope of sections from 

 a cock's comb, leads to an exactly opposite 

 conclusion ; not, of course, that there are no 

 nerves of sensation in the comb, but certainly 

 to the effect that the comb is anything but 

 a specially sensitive part of the body. The 



