Ja:iaary 21, 18li9. ) 



JODSMiL OF QOBTIOULTDRK A,ND OOTTiSB QA.RUENEU. 



radical cnre of trimming in all its branches, none will rejoice 

 at the event more tliau I shall, who have again anJ again seen 

 it reproduced phdoix-like from its own ashes, when I had 

 vainly conceived its utter annihilation wag secured.— Edward 

 Hewitt, Sjuirhlircok, hinningham. 



[We rejoice that Mr. Hewitt has thus spoken out — not that 

 ye needed any index to his " sayings and doings," in oppo- 

 sition to fraudulent exhibiting. 



Now, what would effectually prevent such attempts at decep- 

 tion ■' We think the following rule in an exhibition schedule 

 would: — "The Judges will disqualify any pen the birds in 

 which they perceive are trimmed or dyed, or in any other way 

 artificially altered. The prizes awarded will not be paid until 

 the exhibition has closed ; and if in the meantime any pen is 

 proved to the satisfaction of the Committee to be trimmed, 

 dyed, or otherwise artificially altered, they will place a card 

 upon the pen, pointing out the cause of disqualification, and 

 withhold the prize if any has been awarded to it." Such a 

 rule would give time for defeated exhibitors to examine the 

 prize pens, and such exhibitors are excellent detectives. — Eds ] 



BLACK HAMBURGHS. 



There are often inquiries in '■ our Journal " as to the most 

 profitable sort of fowls to keep ; and I sometimes wonder that 

 in your editorial replies you never say a word in recommenda- 

 tion of the very valuable but too little known Elack Hamburghs. 

 I cannot imagine a more profitable breed. They are very 

 hardy, and as layers they are unequalled, for not only do they 

 lay as many eggs as any of the other varieties of Hamburghs, 

 but their eggs are much larger. Indeed, my Black Hamburghs 

 lay larger eggs than the Dorkings and Cochins, which I keep for 

 sitting. For the table they are all that can be wished — of good 

 size and of most excellent quality. As regards exhibition, also, 

 they are satisfactory, especially for beginners ; for their points 

 are easily learnt, and I think they breed truer than most 

 varieties. There is no question as to their beauty ; the contrast 

 of the bright red comb, the pure white earlobe, and the lustrous 

 green of the plumage is so striliing that no one can help admir- 

 ing them. 



I am glad to see that separate classes for them are springing 

 op at all the larger shows ; they are always well tilled, and must 

 be remunerative to the committees. They are steadily winning 

 their way into favour, indeed they only require to be better 

 known to become one of the most popular varieties of fancy 

 poultry. — Black Cock. 



THE VULTURE HOCK IN BRAHMAS. 



From the time of the commencement of the discussion respect- 

 ing the vulture hock in Brahmas I have always intended to 

 say a few words about it, but idleness and other impediments 

 have prevented my doing so until the present time. 



I do not BO very much object to a vulture hock in a Cochin, 

 as the opinion of some of the judges has made it the fashion to 

 do, for some of the best and purest-coloured imported Cochins 

 I have known have worn that now-unfashionable appendage in 

 conjunction with size, delicacy, shape, and other Cochin merits. 

 In IJrahmas, however, I object to a vulture hock altogether, as 

 I should suspect with it a cross with the White Coihin. I am 

 sure no one has bred Brahmas with greater purity than I have 

 done, and in all the years that I have bred them Cmore than 

 fifteen), I have never seen a vulture hock in a single chicken. 

 It would be interesting to Brahma-amateurs to know whether 

 ihis unquestionable fault appears most in the Light or in the 

 Dark Brahmas. — E. Watts, The Ferns, Jersey. 



THE PERISTEROXIC AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 

 Societies for the improvement and exhibition of fancy 

 Pigeons are no modern things ; like the fancy itself they are 

 not mere things of yesterday. They arose, I imagine, in this 

 way : After a book had been published which had been received 

 by fanciers as a text book and an authority, as was Moore's, 

 A.D. 1731, owners and fanciers of Pigeons would delight, first 

 to endeavour to bring their birds np to the prescribed standard, 

 and then would like to showthem to others who could appre- 

 ciate them. Thus friends would show their birds to friends ; 

 then an assembly of birds would be shown to an assembly of 

 friends. In Jloore's day the celebrated Almond and his Short- 



faced brethren were not so very mnch beyond the better-shaped 

 ordinary English Tumblers, but he was a gentleman destined 

 to rise in the world, and by the year 17154 a standard of his 

 properties was acknowledged and printed separately, and a 

 Society, called the Columbarian Society, was instituted ; but I 

 fancy no other variety of Pigeon was then deemed wurthy of 

 exhibition. London was the cradle of the Almond Tumbler ; 

 in London he rose, improved, and was perfected. Little room 

 ho needs. A tender little fellow, he wants no lofty (lights in 

 mid-air; no, they would do him harm; but cosset him and 

 treat him like a greenhouse plant, and have him near you, 

 and then you can appreciate his form and feather. 



The Columbarian Sjciety lived on, and the Almond was 

 improved by it. All through the last century it existed and 

 nourished. In old Johnsonian times it held its meeting at ''The 

 Globe," in Fleet Street. There be-wigged,short-breeeheJ, shoe- 

 buckled, collarless-coated gentlemen showed their birds ; then 

 came a generation of pig-tailed and top-booted fanciers ; then 

 a high-coat-colliired, metal-buttoned race, with huge bunches 

 of seals at their fobs, and awfully high neckcloths. The owners 

 did not always improve in their appearance, but as a rule the 

 birds did. At length (it was a pity), the old Columbarian 

 Society died, but two successors arose — the Philoperisteron 

 and another Columbarian. The two lived for some years, and 

 their members, like sensible people, who know that union is 

 strength, last year determined to combine the two under the 

 title of the " National Perijteronic Society ;" and it was to see 

 this Society's first annual Show that I went to the Crystal 

 Palace on the 12th inst. 



Pantomimic pleasures, beloved of children, are reigning, as 

 all the world knows, just now at Sydenham : so hundreds of 

 dear little children were on their way to the Palace of Delight 

 — knickerbockered little men and flowing-haired little maids, 

 smiling little chatterers; missie not to-day "in a pet," nor 

 master "in one of his awful passions," as nurse calls them; 

 on the contrary, there they were in the railway carriage, chat- 

 tering happily, and quite unreservedly before their fellow tra- 

 vellers, telling us what they had seen, and where they had 

 been. One little lady told me of her home delights — dolls with 

 frizzled hair, and dolls' houses with wonderful kitchen arrange- 

 ments. Blessed little sunbeams of children that sunless 

 January day, attracting all eyes and ears until Standard and 

 Times were dropped, and the buoyant chatterers carried even 

 old fogies — wretched old bachelors, I fear — into their world, and 

 the old wicked wizened faces shone again with innocent smiles. 

 But the chidreu, all of us children together, led into the child's 

 world by the tiny 's talk, reach that big doU's house, the Crystal 

 Palace. Passing on by courts, and stalls, and theatre, and 

 orchestra, I reach the tropical department, and a turn to the 

 right brings me to the Pigeons. Never could birds be shown 

 to greater advantage — light all round, of course, in the Palace 

 of glass. Large hanging baskets of trailing plants softened the 

 light, and the gentle drip, drip, and splash of the fountain near, 

 fell on the ear pleasingly. 



Now, good readers, I want you to see this Show by means of 

 my pen-and-ink sketch, and then go and see its successor next 

 year, for it is to be annual. Dismiss from yonr minds all 

 preconceived ideas ; do not think of this as an ordinary show. 

 First, no competition for prizes, therefore not a mere pair of 

 birds in each pen, but in many pens a goodly number, from 

 one dozen to even two. There were about a hundred pens — a 

 dozen additional ones this day — mahogany-framed, with light 

 npright wire bars, light and spacious, on tables hung with 

 green baize, and even green baize floors to the pens. Green 

 tells as well for birds as for pictures. The number of birds 

 was about 800. 



First, on the left, I find Carriers, exhibited by Messrs. May- 

 nard, Everett, Hedley, Square, Ord, and Wingtield. Some of 

 these birds are the property of gentlemen wlu do not exhibit 

 for prizes : hence, uninjured by long journeys, they looked 

 beautifully fresh. 



Turning at the end of the Carriers to the right, I come to the 

 Short-faced Tumbler row. What Glasgow was in Pouters, this 

 Show was in Short-faces. Their exhibitors were Messrs. Wing- 

 field, Ilossiter, Ford, Jones, Esqnilnnt, Jayne. Merck, and 

 Esden. These birds foiuied tlie cream of the whole. Fancy, 

 as in Mr. Ford's pen, a stud of twenty-two Almonds of every 

 gradation of feather ; alike in variety as Pigeons, yet differing 

 in variety of feather. By (his plan of many birds in a pen a 

 mass of feathered beauty was seen, which at no other show is 

 to be seen. The Mottled were also excellent. No words can 

 do justice to the Short-faced Tumblers when you consider the 



