234 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ March 13, 1373. 



and if such a charge be proved, all the prizes taken by the same 

 exhibitor will be forfeited for the good of the Society, and the 

 exhibitor's name published in the reports of the Show. The 

 Committee hope and trust that exhibitors wUl render their 

 assistance in carrying out this rule." 



I thiuk a rule such as the above should appear in all prize 

 lists ; but until it do, amateurs will not have a fair chance, as 

 the practice of borrowing is very common now-a-days. — An 



AlUTEUK. 



LIMITING THE VALUE OF EXHIBITED 



PIGEONS AT DUBLIN. 



I WISH to di'aw the attention of your readers to a very gross 

 proceeding to be carried out at the spring Show of the Eoyal 

 Dubliu Society. The poultry exhibited at these Shows for some 

 years have been of a very good class, aud since the addition of 

 the Pigeon classes, a few years since, the number of entries 

 and value of the birds exhibited have increased every year, and 

 the Pigeon department has of late been the great attraction of 

 the Show. 



This year the Committee have given a very liberal sum of 

 money to be distributed in poultry and Pigeon prizes, but un- 

 fortunately they have place 1 tlie framing of the rules and dis- 

 tribution of the money under the decision of some incompetent 

 one. I wish to remark that as far as the Committee are con- 

 cerned, they are gentlemen who are beyond even the suspicion 

 of countenancing anything unfair, and when the matter is put in 

 its proper light before them, as I intend to do, I have no doubt 

 they will at once repudiate the idea of benefiting a few local 

 (Dublin) individuals who are half dealers half amateurs, and to 

 the exclusion of gentlemen who have for years forwarded poultry 

 shows and produced good birds at such loss of time and money 

 as is only known by those who are genuine fanciers. 



The rules respecting poultry are, that no exhibitor can ask 

 more than iilO for the pen, and each pen is liable to be claimed 

 for i;iO. I will leave the poultry exhibitors to deal with that, 

 though as the time between the issuing of the schedules and the 

 closing of the entries is so short, I fear the promoters of the 

 *' little game " will carry out the project this time. 



In the Pigeon classes the artiste who framed the schedule 

 commences his valuation at i'3 for Nuns, then he advances to 

 £i for Dragoons, another i£l is put on Turbits, and he gives 

 breeders a big chance by allowing them to ask .t'8 for Tumblers, 

 Owls, and Fantails. The owners of prize Barbs, Carriers, and 

 Pouters can actually ask i'lO for each entry. What a chance for 

 the owners of good birds ! Surely the London, Birmingham, and 

 Manchester exhibitors will cross the strip of " melancholy 

 ocean " to compete in the new species of (home) rule under the 

 Koyal Dublin Society. I have heard a rumour that the framer 

 of the rules gives as a reason for limitation as to price, that it will 

 prevent the English exhibitors from carrying off the prizes, but 

 i hesitate to beheve that any countryman of mine would even 

 think of, much less avow, such a paltry reason. I have, as 

 well as my friends Messrs. Montgomery, Zurhorst, "Wherland, 

 and Tivy, been successful at English shows, and I am proud to 

 say that when we Irish exhibitors carried oS the blue ribbon in 

 some classes at London, Manchester, and Birmingham, from no 

 one did we receive more hearty congratulations than from our 

 English friends and rivals. It is well known that there are 

 plenty of good birds in Ireland, and the making of such a rule by 

 the Dublin Society can only have one object, that is, to exclude 

 ■the exhibitors who have gone to the expense and trouble to get 

 birds fit to win prizes. It is also rather singular, to say the least 

 of it, that there is no such rule in any other branch of the So- 

 ciety's schedule ; there is no limitation to the price that may be 

 put on cattle, sheep, pigs, or horses, so I think I may fairly 

 assume that the rule about the price of poultry and Pigeons has 

 been concocted for some object other than a legitimate one. 



I expect to have the support of every amateur who is inter- 

 ested in the best birds winning, and who objects to underhand 

 ond interested arrangements. — An Excluded Exhibitoe, Cork. 



Society (Thursday last being one of our meeting nights) ; and it 

 was the unanimous opinion of all members present thai the 

 proper markings of a Mottled Tumbler — Black, Red, or Yellow 

 — also whether Short-faced or Long-faced, should be the white, 

 or, as it is called, the "rose shoulder," and the *' handkerchief 

 back." 



My reason for writing about this is simply because the remarks 

 made iu last week's journal are apt to lead young fanciers 

 astray — at least that is my impression ; and I should be pleased 

 to hear from any other fancier on the subject, which is to my 

 mind one of great importance to the fancier of Mottles. — 



J. FOBD. 



BIRMINGHAM CDLUMBAEIAN SOCIETY. 



At a general meeting of this Society, held on the Gth inst., 

 the accounts for the past ye&v were gone through aud passed. 

 A vote of thanks was unanimously passed to Mr. H. AUsop for the 

 eflicient manner in which he has dischai'ged the duties of Pre- 

 sident for eight years, also to Mr. J. W. Ludlow for his services 

 as Honorary Secretary ; those gentlemen having at a previous 

 meeting expressed their wish to retire from the offices so long 

 held by them. The meeting then proceeded to appoint a Pre- 

 sident and Secretary for the ensuing year ; when Mr. Ludlow 

 was unanimously elected to the office of President, and Mr. H. 

 Pratt, of Lime House, LozeUs, Birmingham, to that of Honorary 

 Secretary. 



This Society is flourishing, has between fifty and sixty mem- 

 bers, and is, we believe, the largest Society of the kind in 

 England. 



PIGEONS IN EGYPT. 



As j'ou go by rail to Cairo, and as you ascend the river, you 

 are never long out of sight of a mud-built village. The saddest 

 and sorriest of habitations for men and women are these Egj-ptian 

 villages I have ever anywhere seen. West India negro huts are 

 better-furnished abodes. Their best-lodged inhabitants are the 

 Pigeons. The only storey that is ever raised above the ground- 

 floor — which is of the ground as well as on it — is the Dovecot. 

 This, therefore, is the only object iu a village which attracts 

 the eye of the passer-by. In the Delta the fashion appears to be 

 to raise a rude roundish mud tower, full of earthenware pots for 

 the Pigeons to breed iu. These are inserted — of course, lying 

 horizontally — in the mud of which the tower is built. In Upper 

 Egypt these towers have assumed the square form, about 12 feet 

 each side. Three or four tiers of branches are carried round the 

 building for the Pigeons to settle on ; these are stuck into the 

 wall, and as the branches depart from the straight line, each 

 according to its own bent, each belt of branches presents a very 

 irregular appearance. No village is without its Dovecotes. 

 From the summit of the prophylffia of the grand Ptolemaic 

 terhple of Edfou, I counted about forty of these Dovecotes on 

 the tops of the mud hovels below me. The number of domestic 

 Pigeons in Egypt must be several times as great as that of the 

 population. I suppose if they kept pigs they would not keep so 

 many Pigeons. They must consume a great quantity of corn — 

 more, perhaps, than would be required for the pigs of a pig- 

 eating population as large as that of Egypt. — [Eyijpt of the 

 Pharaohs and of the Kedivc.) 



MOTTLED TUMBLERS. 

 I PRESUME the question has been asked you as to what should 

 be the correct markings of a Mottled Tumbler, as I read in last 

 week's Journal, in the answers to correspondents, the following 

 — " The best coloured picture of a Short-faced Mottled Tumbler 

 is that in Eaton's work. The white should only be on the 

 shoulder. They easily breed too light." I am quite williug to 

 admit that Eaton's print of a Black Mottled Tumbler is all that 

 need be required ; but I think if you look at the print you wiU 

 find that not only has that the white on the shoulder but also 

 on the back, which should be in the shape of the letter V, or, 

 as it is called, the " handkerchief back." I myself having had 

 some experience in breeding Mottled Tumblers, and being one 

 of the members of the oldest Society of Pigeon-fanciers in Eng- 

 land — viz., the City Columbarian Society, I thought when read- 

 ing your answer I would ask the opinion of the members of that 



Importation of Eggs. — The consumption of foreign eggs is 

 still on the increase. In the first two months of the present 

 year the value of eggs imported was i.'26I,894, against il92,597 

 of the preceding year. Last month the value was much as 

 i:ii7,822. 



PAINTED CANARIES. 



"Will you allow me to call public attention to an act of in- 

 justice ? In the report of Canaries at the Crystal PiJace Bird 

 Show, the following remarkable statement is made ; — " In the 

 two classes a couple of birds (Nos. 187 and 21G), caused quite a 

 sensation, owing to the very unnatural appearance they bore as 

 regards their colour. On this account the Judges declined to 

 entertain them as proper specimens for competition, which 

 opinion was backed generally by fanciers from various parts of 

 England after the Exhibition was opened to the public." This 

 statement conveys the impression that these Canaries were 

 coloured-up for the occasion, which, if correct, would brand the 

 exhibitor with the infamy of fraud aud dishonour. As I am the 

 owner and exhibitor, I wish to say in defence, that these bh'da 

 were moulted by myself, that there never has been dye, stain, 

 or colouring matter applied, and that the rich colour was the 

 result of my method of feeding. Iu order that the truth of my 

 statement may be tested, I shall he glad to forward the birds to 

 you or to any person whom you may appoint, aud I have the 

 fullest confidence that the above inuendo will be proved to be 

 both false and unwarrantable. 



I was quite prepared for what has happened, for a fancier of 



