230 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ September 18, I860. 



should be cruel and hard-hearted if I could sell and then eat 

 my pets ; so I wavered and waited. Then they took to fight- 

 ing ; often did I find them bleeding. One was taken up for 

 dead, he had bled so much. They would fight until they could 

 neither stand, nor see, nor eat. Yes, I had petted them ; if 

 to see they had clean water, suitable food, warm shelter from 

 the wind and rain and cold, and shade from the burning sun — 

 if that is petting, they had had plenty of it. Maybe I had 

 done a little more ; I had sat on the grass and stroked them, 

 they would not have been so bright if I had not ; perhaps I 

 had been foolish, but then I troubled no one with it ; and 

 surely I had not done it that they should come to so unnatural, 

 so unworthy an end, serving no useful purpose ; better had 

 they been coffined in their shells at once. So I handed over 

 to cook half-a-dozen to fatten up when required, and cousin 

 Walter had many a good dinner, picking their bones ; but as 

 he had delicate feelings we did not tell him until the last was 

 consumed. 



In the early part of December there was a great poultry 

 show held in a town a few miles from us. " What think you, 

 Maud, if we send your birds to the exhibition ?" said papa. 

 Of course I seized the idea rapturously, though mamma shook 

 her head, and cousin Walter said, " Of all the silly things I 

 had done it was the silliest." So the entrance fee was paid ; 

 a new basket hamper of peeled willow, price 12*. 6<7., bought ; 

 a man hired to take them to the town and to bring them back 

 as soon as the exhibition closed. We packed them off in great 

 state, they were very white and beautiful, and we were in high 

 spirits, quite sure of success ; sure that the silver cup, given 

 by the new Mayor, would be ours. Why should it not ? And 

 how well it would look standing upon our sideboard. How we 

 laughed and talked and pleased ourselves. Three days afterwards 

 the man brought them home in an old, dirty, broken-down 

 brown hamper, much too small for them ; their tails were 

 broken, their wings soiled, their beauty nearly gone. I never 

 sent them to a show again. What the man charged for his 

 three days out it does not matter — my purse was bankrupt. 

 So ends the story of my White Dorking chickens. — Maup. 



THE SCHEDULE OF THE BIRMINGHAM 

 POULTRY SHOW. 



I perceive in your publication of the 11th inst., that a cor- 

 respondent, signing himself " Ax Old Exhibitor," complains , 

 of not being able to obtain a copy of the prize schedule of the 

 next Birmingham Poultry Show. Even at the time of my j 

 writing, the evening of the 13th, this complaint is general, and 

 various are the conjectures afloat to account for this unprece- ■ 

 dented dilatoriness. 



In this day's Birmingham Gazette, however, a paragraph 

 appears purporting to be an extract from the coming Birming- 

 ham prize list ; and taking for granted that it is a correct state- 

 ment, I have cut it from that paper, and enclosed it for perusal. 

 The applications for schedules at the office, which have been 

 many, are all met by the officials representing the Bingley Hall 

 Show with the statement, " The prize lists are not yet ready." 

 Certainly they ought to have been in ciicnlatiou long before 

 this if the prize lists are really intended to serve the purposes 

 of subscribers, and the Birmingham Council are earnestly 

 endeavouring to still maintain the position of this Exhibition 

 as the prinripal Show in the kingdom. 



It has been long rumoured that the Birmingham prize list 

 was to be remodelled. This has, according to the Birmingham 

 Gazette, evidently been accomplished ; but the changes do not 

 by any means betoken improvement, and, in fact, press most 

 unjustly ou many of the subscribers, through the dissimilitude 

 of the premiums both as to number and value to the different 

 classes. It is really an enigma why six prizes should be given, 

 for instance, in the Dorking classes, whilst the Game exhibitors 

 are allotted but four. It is well known the Game classes at 

 Birmingham have always abounded in first-rate birds, though, 

 unhappily, it is as universally acknowledged that for some years 

 past the prizes have never fallen to the best pens exhibited. 

 Surely the blame, however, and, the subsequent complaints that 

 have necessarily arisen as to the awards, fall entirely upon 

 the incompetency of the arbitrators, not upon a want of merit 

 in the Game classes themselves. 



The supposition so generally entertained that this year's 

 " docking " of the Game prizes is only a prelude to their ex- 

 clusion altogether from the Birmingham prize schedule in 

 future years, seems gaining ground daily among breeders of 



these interesting and popular varieties. To discourage the 

 most beautiful breed of fowls that is to be found throughout 

 an exhibition, simply on account of the difficulty of obtaining 

 arbitrators to properly award the premiums in these classes, 

 seems so unique a mode of retaliation, that (iame breeders 

 were quite unprepared for it, and it gives a strong colouring of 

 truth to the statement of your correspondent "An Old Ex- 

 jiiuitor," when he writes— ""The Committee are so fixed against 

 having different judges, and knowing the incapabilities of the 

 old staff, think they may perhaps be able with rather more 

 correctness to award the prizes to single birds, and that the 

 best may then win, instead of the highest honours (as at the 

 last Show) being given to many of the worst pens." 



That there are parties at the head of affairs at Birmingham 

 who earnestly wish they could with safety expunge the classes 

 for Game fowls entirely is well known, but to do this abruptly 

 would defeat the end in view — namely, to avoid the contro- 

 versies that now always take place as to the Game decisions. 

 A far more feasible mode of public reparation would be found 

 in the appointment of arbitrators whose awards stand above 

 suspicion, than in the continuance of those judges whose prior 

 adjudications were clouded with complicities that have not only 

 never been explained, but, on the contrary, tenaciously kept 

 secret, and winked at annually. — Game Cock. 



J EXTRACT.] 



" The poultry prize list has been entirely remodelled, and 

 instead of classes for a cock and two hens, with classes for 

 single cocks and for two hens, there are only two classes for 

 each breed, and the number of prizes in some of the classes 

 have been increased. Dorkings are placed first on the list ; 

 and in Class I., for Coloured Dorkings (except Silver), for the 

 best cock exceeding one year old there are six prizes — viz., £3, 

 £2 10s., £2, £1 10s., £1, and 10s. Similar amounts are offered 

 in Class II., for the best cock hatched in I860 ; in Class III., 

 for the best two hens exceeding one year old ; and in Class IV., 

 for the best two pullets. A similar classification is adopted for 

 all other varieties, with the exception that for Cochin-China 

 there are only five prizes, varying from £3 to 10s. ; in Spanish, 

 four, varying from £3 to £1 ; Hamburgh s, five; Brahma Pootra 

 and Game fowl four ; and in the Bantam classes three, with the 

 exception of Game Bantams, in which five prizes are offered. 



'• Among the extra prizes are — Three guineas, given by Mr. 

 Robert Chase, for the best White Cochin cock, exceeding one 

 year old ; three guineas, by the Rev. F. Taylor, for the best 

 White Cochin cock, hatched in I860, and a like sum for the 

 best pair of pullets ; five guineas, by Messrs. Martin Billing 

 and Son, for Game cocks ; and five guineas, by Mr. G. F. 

 Greensill, for the best pen of Game hens or pullets. 



"In the prizes for Pigeons, separate classes have been pro- 

 vided for Dun Carrier cocks and hens ; and also for Swallows." 



ROUGH NOTES ON ERRORS AND OMISSIONS 



IN THE POULTRY CLUBS "STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE." 



TnE following notes are by " Newmarket," an old amateur, 

 and where points are not named they are the same as in the 

 " Standard of Excellence" : — 



Game Fowls.— General Shape : Cock. — Legs, rather slender 

 than at all clumsy. Beak, long and sharp, as well as strong 

 and curved. Head, sharp and not thin (a better expression). 

 Neck, long, sooner than rather long, and strong. Back, short 

 decidedly, and not rather short, a short body and back being 

 the first and chief quality. Breast, broad and very hard, not 

 too round or full. Wings, neither too long nor too short. 

 (Bantams carry their wiugs too long and too low, and Malays 

 too short and high. Game should be intermediate between 

 the two.) Tail, neither too long nor too short, and carried 

 upright and erect, which shows spirit, as the drooping tail 

 shows a drooping spirit ; tail well fanned, and the sickle feathers 

 with a full curve well rounded. Thighs, short, and not rather 

 short, very muscular, and placed well and wide apart. (4 inches 

 extreme length.) Legs, neither too long nor too short, and 

 placed well and wide apart for the bird to carry a good heel, and 

 to make him stand firm on his legs as well. Uody in hand, 

 short and very hard all over; a curved back, if a straight 

 curve, and not humped or one-sided, shows fierceness. Crooked 

 breast and duck-footed are great defects of course. Carriage, 

 as in " Standard," and fierce, sharp, and fiery. 



General Shape: Hen. — Legs, more slender than clumsy. 

 Back, decidedly short, and not moderately long, as in 



