January SI, 1867. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



95 



more forbeai'ance is desirable on the part of losing exhibitors. 

 They are naturally prone to magnify the merits of their own 

 birds, and to diminish the merits of their conquerors. The 

 birds of ".\ SrrFEi-.Er, " may have been excellent, but those 

 which took the prizes may have been more excellent in the 

 estimation of unbiased judges. As to the requisite points in all 

 varieties of poultry, they are well known, and the duty de- 

 volving upon a judge is to estimate correctly the preponde- 

 rance of excellence in all the points in each pen. Now, practice 

 greatly facilitates this estimating, and, if for this reason alone, 

 we wish that not more than half a score judges were selected, 

 and that they were exclusively employed, the selection from 

 them being left to the committee of the show. No suggestion 

 was ever more fraught with dissatisfaction than that which 

 recommends an increased number of judges, the increase being 

 taken from local sources. Such an increase, without adding to 

 the ability employed, would inevitably add to the risk of fa- 

 vouritism. — Eds.I 



CHARj\.CTERISTICS of the PRINCIPAL SORTS 

 OF GAME FOWLS. 



(Continued from Vol. XI., page 436.) 



The sorts with the hen-tailed cocks have some of them been 

 very celebrated in the north country for their fighting quali- 

 ties. These birds are small in size, but very hard in fiesh, and 

 short in body ; they were celebrated for their hard fighting and 

 activity, and were quite equal to the best fowls in their fighting 

 properties. They were of various colours — Polecats, Spangles, 

 Piled, Partridge, Cinnamons, Furnaces, and other colours. 

 They are now, I believe, very rarely if ever found. 



Dark Greys, Brown Reds, and Cheshire Piles are the best 

 and sharpest three sorts for fighting, the first two being also 

 the two hardest sorts of all. Some of the Red-breasted Ginger 

 Reds are quite as good as these three sorts, especially an East 

 Suffolk breed of Ginger Reds, of which the cock birds are very 

 red, and which I will describe a little as I go on with the other 

 sorts in rotation. 



I will now mention some of the least common sorts. 



Polecats and Spangles are sometimes good birds. Cuckoos 

 are not good in general. The Red Furnaces are marked with 

 large fire-coloured patches on a white ground, and are quick 

 and good in general. Mealy Greys are often good. Dark 

 Bircheus are too much mixed in blood to be a sportsman's 

 bird, though often very good. Yellow Bircheus are not good 

 in general, though some strains are so. Blue Duns with 

 yellow eyes and legs are the worst of all, being the softest and 

 weakest of all Game fowls. White Game fowls are good and 

 quick, and fight well when red-eyed and white-legged; when 

 yellow-eyed they are not good birds. They are not used for 

 fighting, though resembling the Piles in their qualifications. 

 Black Game fowls are both slow and soft, perhaps slower than 

 any Game fowls. The Brassy-winged Black cocks are the best 

 cocks of this colour. The Furnace breed of Blacks are yellow- 

 backed, and as good as any Blacks, but now quite rare. 



Black-breasted cocks and Dun-breasted cocks are in general 

 slower than all other colours, bnt when with red eyes they are 

 good. No high-bred Game fowls have any other than black or 

 red eyes. The yellow or daw-eyed Blacks are verj' inferior 

 birds. Yellow-ej-ed Red Duns are also inferior birds. 



Before mentioning the rest of the more common sorts, I wUl 

 name the counties producing the best Game fowls ; these are 

 the northern and the midland counties, especially the latter : — 



1. Lancashire. — The best Brown Reds, all others good. 



2. Yorkshire. — Good Reds and Greys of both sorts. 



3. StafJordshire. — Good Reds and Greys of both sorts. 



4. Cheshire. — Best Piles, good 'Whites and Duckwings. 



5. Warwickshire. — Black-breasted Reds and Brown Reds. 



6. Shropshire. — Reds, Greys, Birchens, and Blacks. 



7. Nottinghamshire. — Black-breasted Reds and Duckwings. 



8. Lincolnshire. — Black-breasted Reds, Birchens, and Blacks. 



9. Derbyshire. — Good Piles, Brown Reds, and Gingers. 



10. Leicestershire. — Good Piles, 'WTrites, and others. 



11. Worcestershire. — Black-breasted Reds and Duckwings. 

 The southern counties have rather inferior birds, except 



London and its vicinity. Wales, Scotland, and Leland have 

 some good birds, Wales more especially so. Lancashire and 

 Cheshire on the whole breed the best birds, as being lighter- 

 fleshed and more active in general than any others. Birming- 

 ham and its vicinity is celebrated for its Game fowls, and 

 Manchester for its Brown Reds ; Chester for the best Piles in 



England. Newmarket was once very celebrated for its Game 

 fowls, but is not so now. The four southern counties had the 

 best Red Duns ; and Cumberland and Westmoreland breed 

 most Blue Duns, I have heard, though this colour is certainly 

 rare, as are Red Dans now. 



I have been acquainted with Game fowls since the year 1831, 

 when a boy of eleven years old, and therefore have had ex- 

 perience enough to be able to give a correct opinion on all 

 matters relating to them. The Lancashire Brown Reds have 

 carried ofi more silver cups at exhibitions during the last 

 six years than any other Game fowls. At all the early exhi- 

 bitions the willow-legged Black-breasted Reds took nearly all 

 the silver cups for the first few years. — Newmahkei. 

 (To be continued.) 



PROTRACTED DETENTION OF POULTRY AT 



EXHIBITIONS. 



Mat I be permitted through your Journal to entreat the 

 secretaries of poultry shows to be more particular in fixing the 

 days for their exhibitions ? Take Manchester for example — 

 for a three-days show to the public, my birds had to leave 

 home on Wednesday morning, December 19th, and were not 

 returned till Wednesday night the 2Gth, an absence of eight 

 days ! I cannot learn when they were sent oJT on their return 

 tourney, but being Christmas week they had been detained, 

 jossed about, and starved, till they were more dead than alive; 

 far too ill to eat, and had to be fed by hand for some days. 

 Their plumage was broken and spoiled, and up to this time 

 (Januaiy 11th), they are still suffering from the effects of the 

 exhibition. I believe they had every attention at the Show, 

 but why keep our pets confined in their pens over a Sunday, 

 which is constantly arranged, and in this case over Christmas 

 day as well ? My poultry man said, " The birds are more 

 knocked up from this Show than they have ever been before." 



— ExHIBITOE. 



WANT OF COURTESY AND LIBERALITY. 



I WROTE on the 1st of January begging the Secretary of the 

 Bristol Poultry Show to send me a catalogue ; on the 4th I 

 had not received one. The judging was completed at 2 p.m. 

 on the 2nd. This was a peculiar hardship, as I was thus 

 forced to make my entries for Walsall without knowing 

 my birds' fate at Bristol, and I happened to be particularly 

 anxious as to the judgment on a certain pen at Bristol, with a 

 view to finding out whether that pen would be worth entering 

 for Walsall or not. Also, I wrote and asked the Secretary for 

 a ticket of admission to Bristol Show. He refused, though I 

 exhibited nine pens. Can illiberality go mnch further ? — An 

 Exhibitor. 



MUTILATING POULTRY AT EXHIBITIONS. 



I SAW in a recent Number of your valuable Journal a com- 

 plaint by "An Exhibitok," who had the misfortune to have a 

 bird spoiled, either in its transit to or at the late Exhibition 

 held at Manchester. I sent two pens of fowls to the late 

 Leeds Exhibition, and on their return I found both the cock 

 birds minus a sickle feather ; I examined the hampers, but 

 neither of the feathers was in them. A worse case than this 

 has come under my notice — that of a pen of Silver-spangled 

 chickens. They were sent in perfect condition to the same 

 Exhibition (Leeds), and on inspection on their return, one of 

 the pullets was found to have lost every laced feather from 

 both its wings. I will leave it to other exhibitors of more 

 experience than myself to say if it was possible to strip the 

 pullet of its lacing accidentally. Such cases as the above 

 are becoming quite common. It is very galling to see birds in 

 such a condition after so much labour has been spent upon 

 them. — Thos. Wbigley, jun., Tonge, Middleton, iwar Man- 

 chester. 



EXHIBITING BORROWED FOWLS. 



Is this dishonest practice really carried out in the way alluded 

 to by "Exhibitor?" Surely the best reply is publicity. WUl 

 " Exhibitor," as he knows several cases, mention the 

 names ? I was applied to once or twice some 5'ears ago, pos- 

 sibly by a member of the lending fraternity, as my warm 

 reply seems to have put all such proposals at rest. There can 



