900 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUBE AND COTTAGJE GARDKNER. 



[ April 29, 18C9. 



good specnlation for an artist to try, for 1 know many who 

 wonld like their rooms famished with first-class pictures of 

 poultry. I think if the trial were made at such shows ae 

 Birmingham and Manchester it would be found that euccessful 

 exhibitors would be quite satisfied with a choice painting ; and 

 the example would be followed at other shows.— B. H. D. 



EGG PRODUCE. 

 "C. B., Warnngton," in The Jodknal of Hop.ticwlidm; , 

 of the 8th of April details his egg produce, and of course pre- 

 sumes it to be something uncommon by doing so, if I may 

 judge him by myself ; but I differ from him from experience. 

 Thirty hens in the long month of March produced him 466 eggs ; 

 eight hens in the short month of February produced me 

 160 eggs ; multiply by 3, and my twenty-four hens would beat 

 his thirty by fourteen eggs. My eight hens are four Buff 

 Cochins, two Brahmas, two Dorkings, and one Houdan. — A. 



WXNNE. 



PET PIGEONS. 



Pigeons were my first pets ; Pigeons are pets with me still. 

 Thirty years ago my first pair were bought for 6(/. Sixpence 

 would buy a pair of common Pigeons yet. My fiist Pigeons 

 were red with pure white heads ; a year or less proved them to 

 be both cocks, but, as my principal school companion had a 

 pair both hens, we made an exchange, and were both suited. 

 The hen I obtained in exchange was blue with a white head, 

 and feathered on the legs and toes. Bigger boys than I at that 

 time said that Pigeons with feathery legs would rot the egf?s, 

 but that was not my experience. My pair were noble breeders 

 — we used to reckon on a pair a-month. But Pigeons sit seven- 

 teen days, and although they had a nest again in a fortnight, 

 yet five weeks would be about the proper time, and nine or ten 

 pairs of young throughout the year. Certain it is they bred 

 lor years the whole year round, except for a month or so about 

 August. They always produced two young ones at a time, and 

 never failed to rear them. The hen was a great pet, and would 

 peck from my hand without fear. She soon learnt her mate to 

 feed from the hand too, but he was long a little more shy. At 

 length they became so tame that they would come to me any- 

 where at my call, and would teed from my mouth or pocket, or 

 wherever I presented the food to them. They used to accom- 

 pany me 200 or 300 yards as I set off to school — one sat on 

 each shoulder, and 1 often fed them from my month on the 

 cake and cheese that I had stored for my own dinner. When 

 I returned at night I used to call " Pease " when I came in 

 Bight, and off they flew, or at least one of them, for there was 

 constantly one on the nest, and perched on my shoulder or 

 head, and I fed the bird with the crumbs I had saved on 

 purpose. 



That pair of mine, I remember, were great feeders. At one 

 meal they would pick up as many raw beans as I could lift 

 with my " gowpens " (two hands together half open and side 

 by side) from the horses' bin. They were very fond of beans 

 and peas, or oaten cake. The hen was the pluckiest, too, for 

 whenever I threw down food she jumped right to the middle of 

 it, and, with outspread wings, went round and round, and tried 

 to keep hens, and Ducks, and Pigeons from taking a particle 

 till she was gorged ; even her own mate was served in the same 

 way — self, and nothing but self, seemed predominant with her 

 till satiated. She defended her nest nobly too, for with bill 

 and wings she strove to drive off every intruder. Her pertness 

 was at last the means of hastening her death, for one wintry 

 «nowy morning, while gathering food amongst the horses' feet 

 in the stable, she had slipped beneath one of the horses' feet, 

 and thus was crushed to death. The cock reared the young 

 ones then in the nest, and flew about for some years after. 

 At length he wandered to a neighbouring village and brought 

 therefrom another wife, but the owner would have his own, 

 and of course took it away time after time. But the old cock 

 still persisted in decoying the unmated hen, and by-and-by his 

 constancy in wooing cost him his life, for the owner of the 

 hen, provoked beyond measure, took a gun and shot him while 

 out a-wooing, after having been in my possession some eight 

 or ten years. This was the last of my first pets. — Midland 

 Squire. 



RABBITS DYING YOUNG. 



I THOconi before I saw your answer to my question that I 

 bad discovered a clue to the mystery. Another Utter died 



with exactly the same symptoms as I described before, and 

 by comparing the two cases I came to the conclusion that the 

 disaster was owing to putting the mother to the buck too soon 

 after littering, as in both cases I did so a fortnight after kind- 

 ling. What makes me think so is that the symptoms appeared 

 in both cases the very next day after her visit to the buck. 

 Could this have any effect on the milk? My own judgment 

 would have directed me to leafe the doc in peace till her young 

 were weaned, and I should have acted so had I not seen it 

 directed to do as I did. I shall not try it again till the young 

 are at least a month old. — Cunicolws. 



MANAGEMENT OF CAGED LARKS. 



ToDR correspondent, " A Const.\nt Eeader," will find the 

 following treatment of service in bringing the "spring bird" 

 — that is, a caught lark, into prime condition. 



The cage should be 15 inches long by 10 inches broad and 

 10 high, and the top covered with black or brown muslin, to 

 prevent the bird injuring his skull when he flies against the 

 top. Six inches in length of the bottom of the cage should be 

 covered to the full breadth with a piece of white clover turf, to 

 be changed, if possible, twice or thrice a-week, the oftener the 

 better, and the rest of the floor of the cage must be covered 

 with fine river sand. Let the cage hang in a quiet side of the 

 room well exposed to the light, and near the ceiling, or at least 

 above the level of the eye. 



The staple food should be made as follows — namely, 1 lb. of 

 pea meal, the whole of two eggs, 4 oza. of lard, and 1 oz. of 

 honey. Place the whole in a saucepan over a slow fire, and 

 keep stirring sharply till it present a slightly browned appear- 

 ance, being careful not to burn it. This paste can be kept for 

 a long time by tying it up in a bladder. To one table-spoonful 

 of the paste add one large tea-spoonful of hard-boiled buUock's 

 liver grated fine, and one tea-spoonful of crushed hempseed. 

 Should the bird prove steady on this food he may be further 

 " sprung " with a little of " the singing diet," prepared as 

 follows : — Take the yolk of one egg, the same weight of boiled 

 sheep's heart minced, and a little flour ; mix well, tie up in 

 a cloth, and boil for a quarter of an hour. To ft small piece of 

 this add a little poppy seed, or malt and lettuce seed, and give 

 the size of a small hazel nut with two or three meal worms 

 daily, and a few small, plump, white oata thrown loosely on 

 the bottom of the cage.^E. Hctton. 



BEES IN BORNEO AND TIMOR. 



Having recently perused Mr. Spencer St. John's very in- 

 teresting work on Borneo, published in 18G'2, under the title of 

 "Life in the Forests of the Far East," I have made notes of 

 several passages relating to the apian aborigines of that mag- 

 nificent tropical island ; — 



Speaking of the agricultural pursuits of the " Sea Dayaks," 

 Mr. St. John says — " They obtain beeswax from the nests built 

 on the tapang tree, and climb the loftiest heights in search of 

 it, upon small sticks which they drive as they advance up the 

 noble stem that rises above 100 feet free of branches, and 

 whoje girth varies from 15 to 25 feet. Once these pegs are 

 driven in, their outer ends are connected by a stout rattan, 

 which, with the tree, forms a kind of ladder. It requires cool 

 and dehberate courage to take a bee hive at so great an ele- 

 vation, where, in case of being attacked by the bees, the almost 

 naked man would fall and be dashed to atoms. They depend 

 upon the flambeaux they carry up with them, as, when the 

 man disturbs the hive, the sparks falling from it cause, it is. 

 said, the bees to fly down in chase of them, instead of attack- 

 ing their real enemy, who then takes the hive and lowers it 

 down by a rattan string. The bees escape unhurt. This plan 

 does not appear to be as safe as that pursued by the Pakatan 

 Dayaks, who kindle a large fire under the trees, and, throwing 

 green branches upon it, raise so stifling a smoke that the bees 

 rush forth, and the man ascending takes their nest in safety. 

 Both these operations are generally conducted at night, al- 

 though the second might be, I imagine, practised in safety 

 during the day." 



With regard to the " Land Dayaks " it is stated, that " To 

 the left of the Sirambau are some very fiue tapang trees, in 

 which the bees generally build their nests ; they are considered 

 private property, and a Dayak from a neighbouring tribe ven- 

 turing to help himself of this apparently wild honey and wax 

 wonld be punished for theft." This is the first hint that is 



