356 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTICULTDRB AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



became more interested in the Barb, and concluded to strengthen 

 my stud by the importation of some better birds. In this I was 

 very successful, as they have all taken premiums at our principal 

 shows. Having related how I became a Barb fancier, I will 

 now give a description of their principal points and how I breed 

 them. 



The skall I consider to be the most important point. It should 

 be broad, flat, and even — the same width at front as at back. We 

 cannot give too much weight to this point, as it gives the head a 

 very neat appearance, whereas a tapering skull gives the bird a 

 coarse ugly look. The beak should be short, thick, and inclin- 

 ing downward, with the lower mandible seeming to support the 

 upper. The eye-wattle should be large, round, and even, or the 

 same distance from centre of eye to outside of wattle at every 

 point, rising a little above the head and standing out from it. 

 The edges of the eye-wattle should be very thick ; the iris should 

 be white or pearl excepting in Whites, which have dark eyes. 

 I have heard of Whites with pearl eyes, but they are very scarce 

 and I have never been able to procure any. The neck should be 

 of medium length and slim, especially where it joins the head, 

 with a clean curve under the gullet. In this I differ from Mr. 

 Fulton, as he advocates a thick neck and full gullet, which I 

 think detracts much from their neat trim appearance. The 

 body should measure about 14 inches from beak to end of tail : 

 with its short legs and nicely arched neck, in all it is a very 

 neat, tidy little bird, and as beautiful as of any breed we have. 

 I have noticed persons outside the fancy admiring them very 

 much upon seeing them in the show room. Our object in breed- 

 ing is to improve upon the original stock if possible, and in 

 order to do this we must mate our best birds together. A great 

 many make a fatal mistake here; if they have one very fine pair 

 and one ordinary pair they will cross the two pairs, hoping by 

 that means to improve the whole stock, but instead of which 

 they reduce it to the level of the ordinary birds. I am breeding 

 a very fine Blackcock to a Dun hen, his equal in all points ; this 

 pair I have never seen equalled in quality. The cock has a 

 broad, flat, even skull, J inch between eye-wattles. Eye wattles 

 i, I'e inch in diameter, beak short, heavy, inclining downward, 

 and measuring ly^ inch from centre of eye to point of beak, 

 with a good even beak-wattle. From these I expect some very 

 fine young, as they are both from excellent stock. My second 

 pair is Dun cock and Black hen. The cock is very large with a 

 broad massive skull, good in all points, but rather coarse. His 

 hen is a very fine bird, even in all Barb points, and a capital 

 match for him. Another pair is Black cock and Yellow hen. 

 The cock is good in all points with the exception of skull, which 

 is the required width but tapers a little ; the Yellow hen supplies 

 the deficiency, as she has a very fine even skull. I am breeding 

 also from young birds. After the present breeding season I will 

 give the result of my experiments both in colour and other 



E pints. I am breeding from fifteen pairs of all colours, having 

 irds mated-up as follows: Black cock to Dan hen. Black cook 

 to Black hen. Black cock to Y'ellow hen, Black cock to Red hen, 

 Dun cock to Black hen, Yellow cock to Yellow hen. Yellow cock 

 to Red hen, and Red cook to Red hen. — Bake, — {American 

 Fanciers' Journal.) 



and that therefore his faults ought to be overlooked. Be this 

 so, and why not overlook the faults of the Bullfinch as well, if 

 he really be a depredator? The Sparrow feeds upon almost 

 everything eatable, the Bullfinch feeds principally on insects. 

 All who have studied the domestic economy of birds must know 

 this, and such being the case surely he must do his part In a 

 much larger measure in keeping down the destructive insects 

 which might otherwise prove fatal to our crops year by year. 



In looking over the remarks of that distinguished naturalist 

 Mr. Thomas Edward of Banff I find he says of the Bullfinch: 

 " Great numbers are annually destroyed by gardeners and nur- 

 serymen, who believe that they are destructive, yet their prin- 

 cipal food consists of insects, and insects are also the food of 

 their young. I hope a better day will arrive for these lovely 

 little birds, when they will be cherished and encouraged rather 

 than hated and destroyed." I am sorry that I cannot agree 

 with " WiLTSuiKE IIegtuk's " method of preserving blossoms 

 of fruits. Suppose it were generally acted upon — shoot down 

 the Bullfinch "with no sparing hand;" in fact, wage a war of 

 extermination of Bullfinches in the south or wherever they are 

 to be found ; do the same with the Sparrows in the north, and 

 when a man finds any particular bird an annoyance root it out. 

 Let every Blackbird and Thrush fall by the gun in case they 

 should attack the ripe fruit at the end of the season. Let every 

 Pigeon at large be killed, because I find they pick the hearts out 

 of my few young ten-week stocks. What would our gardens, 

 lawns, and fields be without those 



'* Beautiiul creatures of freedom and light ?" 

 Silent? aye, dead to sound, dead to motion, even worse than 

 dead — crawling with loathsome and destructive vermin. I 

 protest against the proposition, and appeal to all who may read 

 this to spare the Bullfinch as one of the most beautiful speci- 

 mens of our Maker's handiwork. Rather make use of one of 

 those less expensive and simpler appliances advertised so gene- 

 rally for the protection of fruit trees, and the result will be plenty 

 of fruit, beautiful birds, and varied song all around, quite equal 

 to the finest " florists' flowers." 



Since writing the above I have read " Wiltshire Rector's " 

 second anathema on the Bullfinch. His arguments make it no 

 clearer that the Bullfinch does the damage said to be done by 

 him ; but allowing it to be the case, is this lovely bird to be 

 made "winter game " of for the sake of a few bushels of fruit? 



There seems a certain hardheartedness, cruelty, or fearful 

 ignorance in the south unknown in the north. I hardly know 

 what to term it, but in going through some of the markets I am 

 struck with this — I see Blackbirds, Thrushes, Robins, Larks, 

 &c., hung up by the legs for sale. 1 refer at present to St. John's 

 market, Liverpool ; there I have seen that grand songster the 

 Lark for sale at Is. per dozen, plucked, dragged, and spitted ! 

 Twelve of those thrilling songsters run through on one wooden 

 spit ready for the fire, price Is. ! Pray, what damage do they 

 do ? and yet they are netted or shot by the thousand every year. 

 — James Huie. 



THE BULLFINCH. 



Where has the humanity of our friend " Wiltshire Rector " 

 gone to ? He is the last I should have thought of as advising 

 the extermination of this beautiful bird. " Do not estermitiats 

 the hedgehog," says " Wiltshire Rector," but " Bullfinches 

 must be shot down or killed in some humane manner." Now 

 this bird is not only beautiful in plumage and handsome in form, 

 but he has a very sweet natural song. Aa a cage bird there is 

 none more pleasing in all respects. True, he has not the loud 

 defiant song of the Chaffinch, nor the sharp pert song of the 

 Goldfinch ; his song is low but very sweet, and there is no bird 

 of his size more observant and acute in all his senses, as is 

 proved by his powers shown under tuition. 



But what of his depredations ? Is poor Bully to stand the 

 whole brunt ? I throw sentiment to the winds here and do with 

 class men alone— those who value fruit above all, or those whose 

 livelihood depends on fruit. Are there no Sparrows in the 

 neighbourhood of the gardens referred to ? I can tell of their 

 mornings' work. Close to my bedroom window grows a large 

 pear tree, a great bearer, and being an early riser I see what is 

 going on when many people are still in bed. I see the Sparrows 

 cutting down the blossom buds by the dozen when the buds are 

 at a certain stage ; and then as to the gooseberries, they do not 

 even leave the buds " on the extreme ends " of the branches. 



There are no Bullfinches within twenty miles of Glasgow, 

 therefore they cannot be blamed for this work, but it is the 

 work of the Sparrows alone, as I have watched them and 

 frightened them away often. Then my peas; I have had to 

 sow a third time in one season before sufficient appeared above 



f round aa make a decent show — all the work of the Sparrow; 

 ut we are told that the Sparrow does a more-than-oounter- 

 balancing good by the destruction of insects during the Beason, 



THE CHALLENGE. 



Though the challenge given some weeks ago to test the 

 powers of several kinds of hives has not been accepted, I have 

 not relinquished the hope that a trial of this kind, fair and 

 friendly, will yet be undertaken. Such a trial would excite a 

 healthy and lively interest in apiarian circles. In offering " to 

 comply with any reasonable conditions," I tried to cover a wide 

 field and give ample scope for any preferences, and I did not 

 anticipate that anyone would misuudorstand my meaning. It 

 appears to me that the competing hives should be placed in one 

 garden and all be treated alike or managed on the same prin- 

 ciple, in the absence of interested parties. I cannot imagine 

 anything fairer or more satisfactory than this. Suppose a gentle- 

 man of the Stewarton school were to decide that the teat should 

 be " quantity and excellence of super honey," his proposal would 

 be quite reasonable. I had not the faintest idea of settling the 

 matter by mere weight of the contents of large hives on one 

 side, and weight of super honey on the other. These would not 

 be reasonable and fair conditions. 



One or two correspondents have objected to the proposal of 

 letting the hives alone till the end of the season, on the ground 

 that the success of some kinds of hives depends on the attention 

 given to them as they require it, or aa the season advances. 

 Doubtless there would be a disadvantage in placing several 

 supers on a hive at the commencement of the season, but the 

 disadvantage would be as great on one side aa the other. I am 

 of opinion that if the owuera of the hivea were permitted to 

 meddle with them during the time of trial the results would not 

 be considered satisfactory. If the trial were to come oft it 

 should bo such, and carried out in such a way, as to command 

 the respect and confidence of all parties. If such a trial ever 

 comes off, one of its most pleasing features will be the fnot that 

 the results or harvests of honey obtained came from hivea that 

 received no attention whatever during the whole season from 

 March till September. Though the challenge remains unao- 



