JOURNAL OF HOKTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



[ April 1, 1869. 



has a rich plumage ; and that of the wild Duob, in its relative 

 ses, must be produced. It lays a great number of large eggs, 

 weighing from 3 to 3J ozs. each, shell thick, of a blue colour; 

 its flesh is finely flavoured, and on the whole it is a profitable 

 bird, and rarely strays far from home, but, as a rule, not a good 

 Bitter. 



In Geese weight is an all-important feature ; considering, 

 however, that a combination of all points of merit should be 

 aimed at in every branch of our poultry, I should recommend 

 uniformity of plumage in this class. Lincoln is a celebrated 

 county for Geese. One farm has been known to have up- 

 wards of three thousand Geese at a time, consuming during 

 the season a hundred quarters of oats. They should be low 

 on the leg, with the fullest development of breast. The Tou- 

 louse, originally imported from the Mediterranean. I believe, 

 by Lord Derby, deservedly stand in the foremost rank ; the 

 clear orange red of their bills, the peculiar flatness of their 

 foreheads, constitute distinctive points which readily separate 

 them from the common specimens of this colour found in our 

 farmyards. Deep tones of rich brown should be the predomi- 

 nating colours of the plumage of this bird, white being only 

 found on the tail-coverts and under part of the body, al.so the 

 extremities of a few quill feathers. Geese are easily reared, 

 and breed to old age — twenty to thirty years is not uncommon. 

 They require plenty of water and grass. Wild Geese are sup- 

 posed to make the Arctic regions their quarters during summer. 

 During winter they are frequently shot at the mouths of rivers 

 and on marshy ground. A breeding stock should consist of a 

 gander and three Geese. These are enough for an ordinaiy 

 farmyard, as they will increase tenfold during the season, and 

 fat Geese at Michaelmas always command a good price. Any- 

 one having a meadow, with a brook or pondadjacent, would 

 find a gander with three or four Geese very remunerative. 

 They are excellent foragers, and may with their young be 

 turned into the stubble as soon as the corn is carted. They 

 wiU carefully glean whatever may be there left, and when they 

 have a good run many may be selected without further trouble 

 in good condition for the renowned Michaelmas dish. March 

 is the best month for goslings to be hatched in ; the period of 

 incubation is from thirty-one to thirty-five days. When twenty- 

 four hours old place near them a turf of green grass, bread 

 crtimbs, boiled rice, and pond water in a shallow vessel, that 

 they can easily get in and out of. In about a fortnight, if 

 allowed their liberty with their mother, they will pretty well 

 shift for themselves by being fed now and then as other fowls. 



I will now finish with the Turkeys, which may be made to 

 pay on dry and light soils, but I would not recommend them 

 for wet, low-lying land. The white are the most delicate. The 

 Cambridge breed possesses the combined qualities of large 

 size, speedy fattening, and first-class flavour. The tortoiseshell 

 character of the plumage of this breed in adults has a pre- 

 possessing appearance around the homestead. For breeding 

 purposes, a two-year-old cock should be selected for four hens, 

 which should not be more than four years old. Size is very 

 important in these birds. April is the best month for hatching. 

 The poults require great attention until at least two mouths 

 old ; feed the same as chickens, with the addition of a little 

 Bnet, and nettle and onion tops, chopped very fine and mixed 

 with meal. A situation fully exposed to the sun, but protected 

 from high winds and wet, is most advantageous. The rearing 

 of Turkeys is steadily improving, for not long since not more 

 than ten out of every twenty young Turkeys were expected to 

 live ; now, generally speaking, fifteen out of each score arrive 

 at maturity. 



In conclusion, I beg to say it will give me great pleasure to 

 assist to my utmost any project for the improvement of poultry, 

 either for table or exhibition ; and permit me to remind you 

 the Suffolk Agricultural Society intend holding their annual 

 show for 1869 in Ipswich next July ; and the Ipswich Poultry 

 Society, which is composed of gentlemen that not only give 

 their time, but money, for the furtherance of improvements 

 in poultry, intend holding a great poultry exhibition at the 

 same time, when will be given cups and money prizes amount- 

 ing to nearly £200, and I venture to solicit all who can to pay it 

 a visit, and I am sure it will well repay them. 



sort of red-dun bird. The cook has a whole single comb, not 

 lobed or serrated, with only a single wattle under the throat, 

 instead of double wattles, is reddish, with a blue-grey-dun 

 breast and tail, and bluish legs. Hen, light brown partridge 

 colour, with dull dun breast and tail, and bluish legs, and has 

 neither combs nor wattles. This bird is said with great pro- 

 bability to be a hybrid between the two first-named sorts, and 

 is so in my opinion, tliough many consider it distinct from 

 either. 



Gallus .^n'ecs, or Bronzed cock, is of a bronze-yellow colour, 

 the feathers more oval and plated than in the other breeds. 

 The eyes and legs are yellow ; the comb as in Gallus furcatus ; 

 the breast either blackish or of a yellow ginger, or, again, of a 

 brassy or bronzy-green colour. Hen of a yellowish-greyish 

 brown. This species is less like a hybrid, though not so com- 

 mon as the preceding, of which it may be one of the pro- 

 genitors, though many consider it as also a hybrid, as it 

 probably is. 



Gallus Stani.eti. found on the lower slopes of the Ghauts, 

 in India, also in Java and Ceylon, is described as a small, 

 short-legged breed, with much red in the plumage. This is, 

 however, merely another variety of the Gallus ferrugineus 

 called by a different name. It is of rather a more rufous 

 plumage, and the breasts of both cock and hen rather^redder 

 than in most Jungle fowl. 



Firebacks are, strictly speaking. Pheasants, belonging to 

 Phasianus, and not to Gallus, with fire-coloured backs (Fire- 

 backed Pheasants). There is, however, a very red-backed breed 

 of Indian Game fowls, which have also been called Firebacks, 

 but these birds are rare. 



Gallus oiganteus is probably a domesticated sort, not 

 having been found wild, and is the large Malay of India and 

 Sumatra. This has been called the fowl of St. Jago, or San- 

 tiago, in Sumatra. The cock averages from 2 feet 2 inches to 

 2 feet in height. A specimen of this bird, I hear, was in 

 the EJinburgh Museum for some time. This sort has a thick 

 comb slightly raised, and is yellowish or reddish in the cock, 

 and brown in the hen, the same as in our large Malays. The 

 size, inferior powers of flight and walking, and its not being 

 found wild, all militate against this kind being classed as an 

 original species, it being, in fact, the Malay itself. 



In only one wild species, the Gallus ferrugineus, have the 

 hens any combs or wattles, and, therefore, none of the other 

 wild sorts can well be considered as the progenitors of any 

 of our breeds of poultry. In India the yellow and green are 

 the prevailing colours of legs, and birds with legs of these two 

 colours will sometimes, when crossed together, produce blue 

 legs, which are less common in India. The Brown Red and 

 Blue Dun Game fowls crossed together will often produce in 

 the cocks a colour much resembling that of the cock of Gallus 

 Sonnerati. The wild Brown Reds of the Gallus ferrugineusare 

 mentioned in an old work as of a mixed yellow, and blackish- 

 brown plumage, dark under the feathers, comb and wattles 

 yellowish dark purple colour. From the well-known large 

 proportion of yellow-legged fowls in India, it is plain that there 

 must have been some original wild yellow-legged breed for their 

 progenitors, and this breed I consider to have been the yeUow- 

 legged Gallus ferrugineus major, as the rather smaller darkish- 

 legged Gallus ferrugineus minor could not have produced so 

 many yellow-legged native breeds, and so few dark-legged breeds 

 as exist in India ; — at least, such is not probable. — Tketob. 

 (To be continued.) 



EAST INDIAN WILD BREEDS OF POULTRY. 



(Continuedfrom paf/e 200.) 

 Gallus fukcatus, or Forked-tailed cock of India and Java, 

 is the next most common to the two former sorts, and is a 



GIVING WATER TO RABBITS. 

 In your Journal I see a query respecting giving Rabbits 

 water. I have kept Rabbits for years, and will give you my 

 experience. For four or five years I never allowed them to 

 touch water, but after that, seeing something in a book re- 

 specting it, I gave them a little, and the old ones seemed to 

 enjoy it much ; but it had a had effect on the young, giving 

 most of them the " pot." Lately I turned a large, white, lop- 

 eared doe Rabbit into a small enclosure, partly roofed-in, with 

 an unlimited supply of good spring water. At first she drank 

 very much, but after a time I observed that when she had 

 made a meal on any dry food, she would drink a very little — to 

 moisten her throat, I imagine, but that when green food was 

 provided she never touched the water. The white varieties, 

 however, are too delicate to be exposed to the weather, for the 

 wet winter gave her cold, which she never got over, although 

 housed in a warm hutch as soon as the severe weather com- 

 menced. It does not answer to leave water in the hutches, but 



