September 18, 18fi«. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



281 



" Standard," nx being much more spirited and " gamer." 

 Breast, broad and hard, ns in the iwk. Thighs, short. Legs, 

 neither too long nor too short, but rather shorter than the 

 cock's in proportion, ns all hens' should he. Hens, " spurred " 

 if real lirst-ratr (lame hens. 



Cock's weight from 4) lbs. to r>j lbs. tor exhibition. Hen 

 just one-third smaller or lighter than the cock, or from 3 lbs. 

 to :i{ lbs. Latter weight the best. 



Note. — Game fowls that are in the least long-bodied are 

 slow and spiritless, and cannot maintain a long battle, or stand 

 close up in their battle, and are, therefore, worthless birds 

 invariably. 



Black-breasted linn Gun*.. — Cock: — General colour a rich 

 bright red, and not a dark red as in " Standard," bright red 

 birds being both more spirited and also more common than 

 either too dark or too light birds in general. Eyes, red, and 

 never " bay " at all. A red eye shows much more blood than a 

 bay eye, the bay eve being t lie half-bred colour as a rule. Some 

 have the yellow or daw eye, but this is inferior, and the " bay 

 eye " is a cross between the red and yellow eyes. Hackle, 

 striped underneath, and not clear as in " Standard," as the 

 clear-hackled cocks breed the Cinnamon hens, and not the 

 prize Partridge-coloured stripe-hackled hen, which matches 

 with the striped-hackled cock of course. Wing-huts, dark not 

 black. Wing with a steel-blue bar, and not a green bar, as in 

 " Standard." Tail, dark greenish black. Breast, dark bluish 

 black, not greenish. Legs, willow, first for exhibition : white 

 and carp brown for courage and spirit ; yellow for bright 

 plumage if red-eyed ; blue legs rather inferior. 



Hen. — Rich red partridge brown. Hackle, golden reddish 

 with dark stripes. Breast and thighs of a red fawn colour, 

 rest as for the cock and in the " Standard." 



Brown Red Game. — Colour of Cock. — General colour a rich 

 dark brownish red ; comb and face, inclining to dark purple or 

 gipsy, and never quite red, but redder than the hen's. Eyes, 

 very dark, blackish brown or black-. Neck hackle, dark brown 

 red thickly striped with black. Crimson is nowhere visible ; 

 crimson, being a bright blood red, is quite a wrong term, es- 

 pecially for Brown Reds. Shoulders of wings often bright 

 orange red, but more generally of a rich brown red maroon 

 colour. Wings with green bar (contrary to the Black Reds). 

 Tail, dark greenish black. Breast always of an entire red 

 brown colour without any black at all, these being more 

 spirited cocks and of the pure breed. Thighs as the breast. 

 Legs, dark blackish brown or bronzy black. Dark willow not 

 so good, being yellow-skinned. White-skinned birds best. 



Ben. — General colour dark brown, blackish, but not black. 

 Comb and face, dark gipsy purple and never red. Hackle, 

 golden coppery dark red. Rest of points as the cock's. 



Brown Reds are less red than Black-breasted Reds, and less 

 handsome-coloured, but are superior in shape and carriage 

 to all. 



GAME BANTAMS— RAYNORS STRAIN. 



Under this heading the Rev. W. J. Mellor, of Colwick 

 Kectory, Nottingham, has thought it necessary to make a 

 remark in your last Number, which seems to imply a reser- 

 vation or unfairness in my statement, that I had pur-chased 

 the whole of the Rev. George Raynor's stock. 



I have a letter dated the 7th of August, from Mr. Raynor, 

 accepting me as the purchaser of his whole stock — namely, 

 seventy-two chickens and eleven adults, including one Pheasant. 

 Not caring to keep the adult birds, and being willing to part 

 with some of the chickens, I saw him on the 10th of August, 

 and agreed that he should send away birds in answer to certain 

 applications which he had received. I arranged also, to send 

 my man for the stock on the 11th. Subsequently Mr. Raynor 

 sold another bird for me. and this I had to send back to him. 

 Having a complete reliance in Mr. liaynor, and caring but 

 little with which of the adult birds I parted, I took no par- 

 ticular note of them. I knew that the Manchester cock bird 

 had not been sent to me, but I was under the impression that 

 I had the only surviving hen of the Manchester cup pen, a 

 bird from my own strain, with one that he had bought from 

 Mr. Smith, of Hull, to replace the lost one. This was a mis- 

 take, which Mr. Raynor removes in a letter I have this day 

 received from him. He says — " I ought to have informed you 

 which pen of adults had been selected, but this I omitted to do, 

 hence the mistake, which I have explained to Mr. Mellor." 



In answer to a letter from Mr. Mellor, I also explained to 

 him the matter as far as I could, and I gave him leave to 



publish any statement that might be of advantage to him, if 

 he did not compromise me. The tone of his communication 

 to you affects my veracity. — George Manning, Springfield, 

 Essex. ■ 



TOULTRY PROTECTION SOCIETY— SELLING 

 CLASSES. 



The Woodbridge Exhibition appears to have made many 

 exhibitors very angry, and with reason too, I do not doubt, 

 but 1 am bound to say that my own prize money was paid me 

 about a fortnight or three weeks ago, officially, as it appeared: 

 to me, by some agent who had the winding-up of the matter in 

 his hands, and I was in hopes that all the other exhibitors 

 had been equally fortunate. A Poultry Protection Society 

 should take up exhibitions of which the authorities do not 

 fulfil their promises, railways that delay or injure specimens, 

 the class who obtain birds and eggs under false pretences, and 

 the opposite class who sell them. Could such a Protection 

 Society be started, it would he a boon, and I do not doubt that 

 the generality of exhibitors would become members. Much as 

 it may be desirable, I fear there are many difficulties. One is 

 the extended area over which the Society would have to operate. 

 This, perhaps, might be modified as to the amount of expenses, 

 by putting the case of any show in the hands of some lawyer 

 in the town where the show was held, the expenses of such 

 prosecution being paid by the Society. As regards many of the 

 " sharps," they have neither local habitation nor name, and 

 there are great difficulties in the way of bringing them to 

 account. I advise persons to buy only of well-known names, 

 and to part with birds only on receipt of cash to strangers, and 

 even to some known exhibitors. I have had no trouble since I 

 adopted this plan, and have never had any serious complaint. 

 We know well that we do not all see alike, and that the position 

 of buyer and seller alters, perhaps, the appearance of the selling 

 article ; but with honest open-dealing and description I consider 

 this the best plan. When birds are charged at a high price, 

 say upwards of £2 each, the buyer certainly ought to have the 

 option of returning them after payment of railway carriage, al- 

 though it is well known that birds are not improved by railway 

 travelling. 



It is many months ago, in the very earliest days of " selling 

 classes," that I questioned in your pages whether they would 

 fulfil the desired object. I recollect I said at the time that I 

 did not think they would ; that if schedule trainers made a law 

 to prevent owners buying the birds, it was so easy to get friends 

 to buy. I know not whether any special law was made against 

 this practice at Halifax, but if not, the words applied by " As 

 Exhibitor," at page 192, are rather strong. I plead guilty to 

 have done the same thing, certainly not with a dishonest in- 

 tention. I communicated with the Secretary first, who replied 

 that there was no objection to the course, and accordingly I took 

 a prize, and claimed my own birds. On a second occasion I 

 did the same. The Secretary forgot to mark them, the Judge 

 awarded them a first prize, and claimed them himself. I was 

 one of the earliest in the show, and saw my birds ticketed as 



sold to Mr. . I sought the Secretary, and had the matter 



put right ; the Judge, who had not left, received back his money ; 

 but no one suggested that I had acted dishonestly. I had, in 

 fact, taken the Secretary's advice first. 



But to examine this matter further. Whatever was the ob- 

 ject intended in the first introduction of these classes, and I 

 presume it was the hope that purchasers might obtain first- 

 class birds at a very moderate price, I do not think the object 

 has been gained. One reason, I humbly conceive to be, that 

 the amount at which they must be offered is, as a rule, too 

 small for first-class birds. Be this as it may. whilst the selling- 

 class pens fill as they often do now — twenty or thirty com- 

 petitors — secretaries of shows will not cut these classes out ; 

 they pay for the prizes, and leave a handsome balance : they 

 add, again, to the coffers of the show by the ten per cent, on 

 all sales, which even the owner has to pay ; and so, unless the 

 exhibitor is made to sign a paper that he will not either by 

 himself or otherwise purchase his pens, I do not see that it 

 can be called a " dishonest procedure." I should be very much 

 disposed to say, from the names that I have seen in these 

 classes, that the practice is largely carried on. I cannot other- 

 wise understand some of our best breeders parting with birds 

 which may produce first-rate progeny, for the paltry sum at 

 which they must be entered for sale in these classes. Railway 

 charges, entrance fee, hamper, and ten per cent, on all sales, 

 would in the great majority of cases leave a small remainder 



