JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



t March 17, 1870. 



memory, but of laying the book before him and copying each 

 sentence in its order. 



["We have received other letters, pointing out the wholesale 

 plagiary from " The Treatise on Domestic Pigeons," published 

 in 1765. We had two other communications from Mr. Crook, 

 and they also being similar plagiaries, have been returned with 

 an expression of the contempt such conduct merits. — Eds.] 



THE STAINED FEATHERS AT TORQUAY. 



I have, through the kindness of one of the Judges, had the 

 opportunity of examining the feather cut by them from the 

 disqualified bird at Torquay. There is no doubt about the fact, 

 and detection does not appear to prevent the continuation of 

 the practices. Such practices throw a slur and evil repute upon 

 all poultry-breeders. Lately my partner was at a rector's houBe, 

 and saw some Cochins which he admired ; he was told their 

 parentage, &c, and he then replied, " My partner," alluding 

 to me, " is a great fancier, and takes a number of prizes at the 

 shows. Why do you not try?" The reply was, "Oh, yes! 

 ThoBe professors play no end of tricks — dye feathers, prop up 

 combs, put on new tails, pull out vulture hocks, <fco. ; there is 

 no chance for an ignoramus like myself." When my good 

 partner brought me home this reply I felt highly flattered at 

 being considered a " professor of trimming," equal, I suppose, 

 to Madame Rachel, and one of thoEe up to any trick ; but this 

 proves how the public are apt to regard all who take prizes as 

 guilty of such practices. 



How do these things occur ? I must confess I can hardly 

 believe any true fancier would act so ; it is degrading to our 

 pursuit, and must ruin it if not checked. You ask, " We shall 

 be obliged if anyone bo acting will explain in what he differs 

 from a pickpocket." This is a question which I should like to 

 see answered ; it will be nuts to some of us and pickles to 

 others, but will require, I fancy, a great stretch of imagination 

 to answer satisfactorily. 



Will it come to this — that the honeBt exhibitors will decline 

 to enter at a show where any breeder convicted of such mis- 

 deeds is allowed to exhibit ? I throw out the hint to my fellow 

 sufferers, for who knows how many prizes he may have lost by 

 the non-detection of the deceit ? — Y. B. A. Z. 



P.S. — On the subject of dyeiug I lately heard an anecdote. 

 A young lady was relating to a gentleman the story of their old 

 nurse, who, being one of the olden time, disliked red hair, now 

 Bo fashionable. She had been telling her young mistress what 

 ft very eligible offer she had had in her time — a most respect- 

 able tradesman in a capital business, Bteady, well-to-do, &c. ; 

 " but then you know, miss, he had such red hair that I could 

 not abide him !" The gentleman replied that this was rather 

 hard, as his love and devotion being so strong, he doubtless 

 would have died for her sake. But what is this to the devotion 

 of some of our exhibitors, who will dye for a paltry prize ? 



MR. YARDLEY AND THE PRIZE PIGEONS AT 

 WOLVERHAMPTON. 



The assertion made by " Yode Correspondent," that " some 

 of the birds in question," including mine, " were sold by Mr. 

 Yardley to the parties named," has not one word of truth in it, 

 at least so far as I am concerned. I have never purchased a 

 single bird of Mr. Yardley, or had any dealings with him until 

 a few days ago, when I sold him the pair of Fantails which took 

 the first prize at Wolverhampton, for £i in cash and his pair 

 of birds that took the second prize at the same Show. I can 

 only say that I would not have taken that price for them, but 

 for the fact that I am declining keeping Pigeons. — W. H. Tom- 

 Mnson, Ncwark-on-Trent. 



THE PERVERSITY OF EGG-BUYERS AND 



SELLERS. 



Amongst the subjects affecting the poultry yard, there are few that 

 more require reform and arrangement than the mode of selling both eggs 

 and poultry. By the present system " egs>s are eggs," and a dozen 

 little things weighing about 20 ozs., the produce of little half-starved 

 hens, will sell for as mnch as a dozen Cochin or Brahma eggs weigh- 

 ing, as mine do, on an average 29 ozs. And the same may be said of 

 fowls and chickens ; one buys for the table a " feathered biped," with 

 little bnt feathers and bones, weighing some 2J lbs., at the same price 

 as a plump Dorking weighing 5 or 6 lbs., and vim versa, unless we 

 do the dealing ourselves, and take care to get the benefit of tho nial- 

 arrangemeut by selling the lean kind and buying the plump ; bnt as 



both parties cannot do this, it cannot by any care be made to " work 

 well," the nsnal apology for old abuses. As I, for one, am neither 

 disposed to buy nor keep the worse sort of fowls, and therefore do not 

 have the less sort of eggs laid in my nests, I and all improving poultry- 

 keepers are always at a disadvantage, and the country is loser by the 

 little encouragement held ont for improving the stock. "What would 

 our breeds of sheep and cattle be if one sheep or ox sold for as much 

 as another, irrespective of size and quality ? — M. E. 



[The remedy is in the hands of the purchasers and vendors solely. 

 Butchers are too mindful of profit to give the same price for the small 

 and ill-conditioned as for the large anl superior animals, and we 

 suspect that shrewd housekeepers, too, would not boy Bantams' eggs if 

 they could obtain Spanish. If buyers will give the same price, and 

 sellers will take the same price, for large and small eg^B, no rule can 

 be devised to prevent them. — Eds. ] 



FLYING TUMBLERS— BIRMINGHAM ROLLERS. 

 As much correspondence has, of late, appeared in your 

 columns in reference to the above, in which many allusions 

 have been made to this town, a few remarks from a Birmingham 

 fancier, and one who till a year or so since has had consider- 

 able experience in the flying fancy, may not be uninteresting. 



In the first place I should like briefly to allude to your corre- 

 spondent's remarks in page 175, in which it is stated that Mr. 

 George Phillips, who resided at the Mount, near Handsworth, 

 was the first to introduce the Roller Pigeon. In regard to this 

 statement I beg respectfully to say that your correspondent 

 has made a mistake ; I have only this evening been in com- 

 pany with two old fanciers, who have for years flown some 

 | of the best Tumblers in this town — one of them fur the last 

 i forty-five years — and both of whom knew Mr. Phillips well. 

 \ They assured me that to their own knowledge good Rollers 

 ' (if not better than there are now) were flown in Birmingham 

 I years before Mr. Phillips kept them, in fact, for the last hundred 

 years. 



The elder of the gentlemen to whom I allude had a brother 

 who flew them seventy years ago, and a kit was flown by the 

 father years before either of them. First-rate Rollers were also 

 flown by a person named Bunney, of Ashted, and a Mr. Piercy 

 I years before Mr. Phillips, who, however, as Mr. Hardy remarks, 

 j was a thorough enthusiast and possessed remarkably good 

 i birds. They were not, however, the clean-cut birds that are 

 generally recognised as Baldheads, but birds with white heads, 

 | " slobbered," as it is termed here, down the throat and neok 

 with white. 

 Now in regard to the Tumbler, some thousands of which are 

 | flown in Birmingham at the present time, judging from what 

 has appeared in " our Journal " from time to time, very many 

 i erroneous impressions seem to be held in regard to them and 

 their performances. One seems to be that all Birmingham 

 i Rollers are necessarily coarse, large-bodied birds with heavily- 

 I feathered legs. Such birds are no favourites with the best 

 fanciers here, for there is, as a rule, not one of that description 

 out of twenty that is a good bird in the air. The best, on 

 ' the contrary, are short and compact in body, full-chested, 

 with moderately short bills, round heads, and white flight 

 feathers. The old fancier to whom I have alluded would not 

 allow a muff-legged or dark-wiDged bird in his flight, and all 

 his birds answer to the characteristics I have named, their 

 colour being mostly blue and bronzed badges, the latter ex- 

 ceedingly pretty birds. The colours, however, of the gene- 

 rality of the Birmingham birds are very various, for as Mr. 

 Hardy states, more attention is paid in matching them for 

 breeding to their qualities in the air than to their colour. 



An impression seems to prevail also that all Tumblers that 

 come from Birmingham are Rollers — at least, they are all called 

 Birmingham Rollers, whereas, where there is one that can roll 

 there are dozens which can scarcely tumble at all. Kits of 

 Rollers and mad Tumblers — that is, in which every bird can 

 roll or tumble — are only in the possession of the best and 

 oldest fanciers. 



In the majority of those flown here, where there are one 

 or two good birds there are a dozen that are not worth more 

 than Is. or Is. 6d. each. Warranted good Rollers fetch from 

 6s. to 10s. a-pair, and I have myself given 10s. for single birds. 

 They are to be had from any of the numerous dealers here, but 

 the best way to obtain them is from some well-known flight if 

 you want to depend upon their " turning out " well. 



The average number of a good working kit is from twenty- 

 five to thirty ; if there are less than twenty they do not work 

 very well together at the turns, and if many more than thirty 

 they do not fly so long nor bo high as the number I have stated. 



