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JODBNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



I November 26, 1868. 



POULTRY, BEE, and HOUSEHOLD CHRONICLE. 



TRIMMING— MANAGEMENT OF SHOWS. 



I CUT the leaves of "our Journal" expecting to find a long 

 list of opinions and dissertations on the very important issue 

 raised by " Nemo " — viz., the trimming of fowls for exhibition, 

 asd can only account for their non-appearance by the all-ab- 

 Borbing elections. I write in the hope that this question wiU 

 be taken up by our fanciers at large. My own opinion is, that 

 80 long as Judges grant the prizes, &c., to trimmed birds, and 

 leave untrimmed ones out in the cold, trimming will be prac- 

 tised. No doubt, a judge's task is no easy one, and trimming 

 ia in many cases almost impossible to detect. Take, however, 

 Brahmas. All breeders know that it is next to impossible to 

 breed birds with very heavily-feathered legs and feet, without 

 their being also hocked, and what I would ask of our judges is, 

 not to pass over a bird shown in its natural state, and give the 

 prizes to those birds whose feathers had been extracted, when 

 the birds are in other respects equal. 



If am not trespassing too much on your valuable space, I 

 would like to say a word on the line " A Cheshire Man " 

 allades to. The fact of the Secretary exhibiting cannot but 

 have a very suspicious appearance in the eyes of other ex- 

 hibitors, from his attendance on the birds, and knowledge of 

 the judge, and most likely his presence during judging, and it 

 is a practice which I hope will be discountenanced. 



Finally, I would like the managers of our leading shows to 

 allow the entry list to remain open for a rather longer period, 

 as it is difficult to know a month beforehand how birds may 

 moult (especially chickens), and which will turn out best. — 

 J. W. C. 



the " Derby Beds," and from the " Mexborough Yellow Duck- 

 wings," crossed with the yellow-legged White Game hens; and 

 at Burton Agnes Park, Boynton, near Bridlington, Yorkshire, 

 Sir Henry Boynton, Bart., had some once-celebrated yellow- 

 hackled Blue Dun Game fowls, which also produced good 

 Lemon Piles, but these breeds are now bred out or nearly so. 

 The true Lemon Piles being yellow or daw-eyed, were never 

 such game birds, I believe, as the white-legged, red-eyed Piles 

 were, nor so game as any red-eyed Piles are, but the three 

 above-mentioned strains of Lemon Piles were certainly the best 

 of their colour. 



In the twenty-sixth line from the bottom of the second 

 column, page 3'JO, the fourth word from the end of the line 

 should be " in," and not " to." — Newmarket. 



BREEDING PILE AND DUCKWING GAME 

 FOWLS. 

 I OMITTED the following in the last papers on Piles and 

 Dnckwings : — 



The usual or favourite colour for the breasts of Pile Game 

 hens at exhibitions and elsewhere, is the " dull chestnut " or 

 " dull clay colour." I do not admire the clay-coloured breasts 

 in Pile hens, and much more admire " white breasts thickly 

 streaked or veined with bright red ;" or else hens' breasts 

 marked with the " horseshoe-shaped bright red marks on the 

 white ground ;" these horseshoe marks with the round side 

 downwards always, they being the red margins of the rounded 

 lower ends of the hen's breast feathers. Hens with breasts 

 marked in the two ways here described, I think, are very hand- 

 some in their pencilling, far more so than any " clay-breasted " 

 Pile hens are, and they also match the " red marble-breasted " 

 Pile cocks much better than the dull clay-breasted hens do, 

 and such Piles as I have described, I consider to be the best- 

 marked Piles. 



Our exhibition yellow and willow-legged Piles are all " made 

 np," or cross-bred birds ; mongrels, and not pure-bred Pile 

 Game. The pure-bred Piles, bred from Piles with Piles, for 

 tome generations, are the old white-legged Red Piles with red 

 eyes, which are the true Pile Game fowls, and not cross-bred 

 birds, and are also our "gamest" Piles. These latter are, 

 however, not quite such high-coloured bii'ds, and, therefore, 

 not so good in colour as our cross-bred exhibition Pile Game 

 fowls. 



In Uke manner our high-coloured yellow exhibition Duck- 

 wing Game are all " made-up " birds, and cross-bred birds or 

 mongrels which would not retain their high colour, or transmit 

 it if bred with pure Duckwings, as pure-bred Duckwings will 

 always breed to Greys or Grey Duckwings if crossed with their 

 own colour instead of with Keds, but the crossing with the 

 Beds keeps up the high colour in Duckwing cocks' backs, which, 

 though a sign of impurity of breed, seems to have been made 

 the chief desideratum at our exhibitions. I do not, of course, 

 mean to deny that our exhibition Piles and Duckwing cocks 

 (not hens), are not the handsomest specimens of their colour. 



There is also another but an inferior strain of pure-bred 

 Pile Game fowls — the yellow-legged gravel-coloured Piles with 

 yellow eyes, but they are not birds of spirit as compared to the 

 white-legged Piles. Our handsome exhibition Piles are mostly 

 white-tailed White-breasted Beds, scarcely Pied birds at all, 

 as already mentioned. 

 The best Lemon Piles, yellow legs and eyes, were made from 



BRAHMA POOTR.VS' COMBS, &c. 



What is the correct comb for a Brahma cock ? This is a 

 question of general interest to all Brahma breeders at the 

 present day, and I, for one, hope you can obtain and publish 

 information on this point from some of our best judges in the 

 Brahma classes. In the " Standard of Excellence," published 

 by the Poultry Club, I see as follows : — " Comb, pea; small, 

 low in front, and firm on the head without falling over to 

 either side, distinctly divided, so as to have the appearance of 

 three small combs joined together in the lower part and 

 back, the largest in the middle, each part slightly and evenly 

 serrated." 



Now, of all classes of poultry, the pea-comb is a peculiar and 

 marked character of the Brahma, and, with a little unity on the 

 part of the judges, may undoubtedly be so maintained. 



On visitiugthe Southampton Show, I was much surprised to 

 see how very little regard had been paid to the combs in the 

 class for Light Brahma chickens. Even the bird to which the 

 cup and first prize were awarded had a very large comb, which 

 grew very far back on the head. The second-prize bird's comb 

 was not at all firm ; it quite shook when the bird moved its 

 head. Most of the other birds which were noticed had very 

 large combs, and combs that almost formed a spike at the 

 back ; while three pens with combs most nearly answering to 

 the description in the " Standard " were passed without any 

 notice, and these were very good birds in other respects, and 

 had all previously been prizetakers. One bird that was highly 

 commended had a large comb, quite lopping oyer the side of 

 its head. To the casual observer it would appear that the 

 comb was a matter of very little moment, instead of being one 

 of the leading features of the Brahma, and I much fear, if we 

 cannot persuade our judges to give more attention to this point, 

 we shall see ere long the neat head of a Brahma surmounted 

 by a comb that would hardly disgrace a Hamburgh. — Philip 

 Crowley. 



[Either pea or single combs are correct in Brahma Pootras, 

 but the former have always been preferred as a matter of fancy. 

 We have never heard the " Standard of Excellence " considered 

 an authority in poultry matters. We did not visit the South- 

 ampton Show, and can, therefore, say nothing about the 

 Brahma judging. We consider the comb a great point in a 

 pen of Brahmas. Whether single or pea, all should be alike, 

 and perfect of their sort. Our idea is that if it were possible 

 to find two pens so precisely alike, that they should differ in 

 nothing but combs, and in that respect, save in shape, should 

 be on an equality, we should allow the pea-comb to weigh in 

 favour of its possessors ; but if the pea-combed birds were 

 inferior to the single-combed in other respects, we should not 

 allow them to be the first on account of their combs.] 



DUCKS' EGGS DISCOLOURED. 



I HAvii been wailing for any explanation that might be given 

 to account for tha discoloration of Ducks' eggs, complained of 

 by Captain Home in your Journal of November 12lh. I believe 

 it is caused by their feeding on acorns, and I have heard it 

 attributed to this cause. My Ducks will absent themselves 

 from the yard for weeks while the acorns are abundant, but 

 they soon return for their regular meals when the supply 

 fails.— L. B. 



ABEiiDEEN Poultry Show. — This deserves encouragement 

 from exhibitors. Seven silver cups and three silver medals 

 are in the list of prizes, besides the usual money rewards. 



