82 



JOUKNAL OF HORTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



[ January 23, 1868. 



ftHiateur who has experienced this same difficulty would give 

 roe his advice on the subject I should feel grateful. Can it be 

 due to diet or climate, or any preventible cause, or is it usual 

 for straight-combed birds to be in the minority ? 



Of one fact I am very certain — that it is a mistake to send 

 valuable pullets to a sliow which is lighted with gas before the 

 comb has assumed its adult development. Theie can be no 

 doubt that the heat of the gas draws up the comb with unna- 

 tural rapidity ; so that, too weak to bear its own weight, it 

 becomes twisted or falls over. I have seen many instances of 

 this, and have heard of still more. 1 did not see the last Bir- 

 mingham Show ; but in that of the previous year there were 

 cases both of prize and commended pullets, with, to say the 

 least, suspicious combs, where the birds referred to could 

 scarcely have occupied the position they did had their combs 

 presented the same appearance to the judges which they pre- 

 sented to the public during the later days of the Show. 



In one of my former letters I ventured to criticise a judgment 

 of one of our deservedly most esteemed poultry judges. It has 

 only just come to my knowledge that the statement which I 

 made at the close of my letter is entirely erroneous. It there- 

 lore becomes my duty to make the only reparation in my power 

 to Mr. Hewitt, by offering to him my most sincere and heart- 

 ielt apologies for having made an unfounded charge calculated 

 to give him so much annoyance. I am taking an opportunity 

 ■of_ privately explaining to him at large how I was myself 

 misled ; but though he has expressed no wish whatever to me 

 on the subject, I feel that I cannot do less than endeavour to 

 make my acknowledgement of my mistake as public as the 

 mistake itself. — Delia. 



THE GAJIE COCK'S TAIL. 



" Newmakket " does not seem to recognise more than two 

 styles of tail, which he designates the drooping and the upright, 

 and he advocates an upright tail well fanned. There is another 

 Style of tail which many other breeders and exhibitors of Game 

 fowls besides myself prefer, and that is the "whip " or "switch" 

 taU, composed of shorter, narrower, and harder feathers than 

 any other, and in the general opinion it is far more elegant, and 

 more in keeping with the fine head and neck of a Game cock. 

 Birds with the switch tails do not, when in health and condition, 

 ■droop them, but carry them well back at a slight elevation ; and 

 from personal knowledge I can affirm that I have found such 

 birds the quickest, hardest, and most enduring of any. 



I very much prefer the close, tight, and narrow tail of a 

 moderate length in a Game hen, to the open or fanned tail, how- 

 ever good and sound its feathers may be. 



Another point which has struck me is that " Newmaeket " 

 condemns as " cross-bred," and "not pure enough for cup and 

 prizetakers," all the Brown Red Game cocks with any black 

 Stripes in the breast, and all hens with black bodies and striped 

 liackles, although he acknowledges these to be the favourite 

 colours. 



While reading these remarks I thought. Are we not, then, to 

 endeavour to improve any breed, to cultivate any better or 

 handsomer style of marking and colour, and are we to confine 

 ourselves to the oldest style we can find ? How would the 

 Spanish of twenty years back look in competition with the birds 

 of the present day, whose faces have received the most careful 

 attention at the hands of their breeders ? or how would the 

 originals of several other breeds of poultry stand comparison 

 with their more cultivated descendants ? 



Another point, and the last I would call attention to to-day, 

 is the designating of the Black-breasted Red breed " Partridge" 

 Lens. We might with as much propriety call Duekwing hens 

 " Partridge "-feathered, as Black-breasted Reds. The Dark 

 Cochins are also frequently called "Partridge," but often 

 " Grouse," which I thiuk is far nearer the mark.— Exetek. 



[There are both. — Eos.] 



FOUR-TOED IIOUDANS. 



Houeans increase in favour day by day — a good article always 

 speaks for itself, and such they prove themselves everywhere 

 to be. One correspondent says many of his hens laid from 200 

 to 250 eggs last year ; another that a Houdau is as good eating 

 as a hen Pheasant ; while everybody admires the total dis- 

 regard they have for dirt, damp, and cold. 



I want to alter one point — that is, to do away with that 

 wretched fifth toe. Of course, every one wants five-toed birds, 



because " our judges " say it is right ; but let the question be 

 well ventilated, and let it be understood that a well-matched 

 pen of four-toed birds is quite as perfect as one of five-toed 

 birds. Put in the thin end of the wedge first ; put four-toed 

 birds on an equality with five-toed birds, and the latter wiU 

 gradually vanish. No man, I suppose, in hia senses, will say 

 that five toes are preferable to four toes, as the making of a 

 foot. 1 take it that does not admit of an argument. As for 

 saying that Houdans are only pure when five-toed, it is sheer 

 nonsense. Numberless birds come four-toed, and many with 

 four toes on one foot, and five toes on the other ; and, more- 

 over, four-toed birds breed five-toed, and the reverse ; so there 

 really is no rule. It is, however, certainly most provoking to 

 see a fine bird in all points put on one side because he has four 

 toes, which ought instead to be to his benefit. 



I want to see Houdans perfect, and I am certain that with 

 four toes only they will be less liable to feet diseases than they 

 are now. — F. H. Schroder. 



LIGHT AND DARK BRAHMA POOTRAS. 



As an old breeder and exhibitor of Light Brahmas, I hope I 

 may be allowed a word on the above point. Mr. Worthington 

 and Mr. Pares, both very enthusiastic admirers of the Light 

 birds, seem to me to forget that the committees of shows are 

 not blessed with unlimited means for the bestowal of cups. On 

 the contrary, in a great many cases the attempt to lay the 

 foundation of a permanent show, especially amongst us 

 southrons, results in loss to the originators. Take Bristol and 

 Clifton, for instance, with its liberal schedule, its beautiful 

 show room, the wealthy inhabitants, and teeming population, 

 still the result is a loss more or less pronounced. Under such 

 circumstances it does seem too hard to expect that in lieu of a 

 cup to the best pen of Brahmas, one should be ofi'ered to Light, 

 and another to Dark. At this rate, why should not the dif- 

 ferent varieties of Cochins ask each for a cup ? More pointedly 

 still, why not the various breeds of Hamburgh? The dif- 

 ferences between them are surely as marked as those existing 

 between Light and Dark Brahmas. 



At the great majority of shows Brahmas have been divided 

 into Light and Dark. What an advance this is on the time 

 when, some three or four years ago, I urged in our columns the 

 claims of Brahmas generally to a class. Is it to be, that having 

 obtained this class at every show worth the title, having even 

 obtained the division of this class at many exhibitions. Darker 

 Light breeders are still to be dissatisfied ? Mr. Worthington, 

 and Mr. Pares, and the Light breeders say, that it is all very 

 well, but the Dark birds always take the cups. My reply is, 

 Do they not always deserve them? I have but few opportu- 

 nities of seeing shows ; but wherever I do go, I am struck by 

 the degeneration of the Light birds, while it must be allowed by 

 all that the Dark have improved. This opinion must go for 

 just what it is worth, but it is my honest opinion, written with 

 no unkind feeling towards my old love. In the mere matter of 

 leg-feathering, how infinitely inferior are the Light birds gene- 

 rally to the Dark. In the matter of legginess, again, I think 

 all will allow that generally the Dark class shows less of this 

 failing. I recollect well a gentleman writing to me for Light 

 birds some years ago, in which letter he said he had once asked 

 Mr. Hewitt whether if two birds were equally good, he would 

 give the prize to the Light. His reply was. Yes ; but he had 

 never seen the Light bird that was equaUy good. With this 

 verdict from Mr. Hewitt, in the palmy days of the Light birds, 

 when Mr. Pares's old cock was alive, what is to be expected 

 now, when, as Mr. Pares says himself, he has never seen his 

 equal since ? 



1 cannot at all agree with the plan on which the decision of 

 a cup should rest, according to Mr. Pares — viz., " The best 

 relatively of its own variety." Does not this proposition carry 

 on the face of it an admission that the Light birds are gene- 

 rally inferior to the Dark ? What is the difference between the 

 Light and Dark birds ? Ought there to be any other difference 

 than that of colour ? Geese and Ducks are two distinct breeds ; 

 a cup given to these might be decided on the "relative" 

 merits, one between two varieties of the same breed on the 

 "comparative" merits. 



So far as I can see, the Light birds are beaten by the Dark 

 in size, substance, depth of breast, length of leg, and leg- 

 feathering ; at least, as the generality of each variety are ex- 

 hibited at the present day. Will my Light Brahma friends feel 

 hurt if I endeavour to reply to the question, Why is there this 



