Fibruary 6, 1866. ] 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



119 



any barndoor or accidental food. We shaU be glad of any 

 further details as it has long been oivr opinion that poultry- 

 keeping may be almost reduced to a system as to its expen- 

 diture, and that fowls may have the proper allowance seiTed 

 out weekly as easily as it is done for horses, and -with the 

 same result of health and high condition. The want of reliable 

 statistics misleads some, and discourages others.] 



VULTURE HOCKS— TRIMMING. 



The remarks of " Clekicus " have somewhat forestalled 

 what I myself had been iutcnding to say on this subject. I 

 am utterly astonished at the reply of " one of our most 

 able Judges," that the vulture hock is a recent iutroductiou. 

 Yon have hit the date more correctly, I imagine, at 1850. and 

 I can myself bear you out, as I had some of Sturgeon's birds 

 soon after that date, and I should say that vulture hock dates 

 from the introduction of Cochin fowls. Before that time all 

 our known ^breeds of poultry were naked-hocked birds ; Dork- 

 ings, Spanish, Game, Malay, Polish, had this in common, 

 whilst the vulture hock was found only in some of the booted 

 Bantams, very seldom seen, and certainly not the source that 

 could have given it to the Cochin. Whence, then, did it come, 

 if not with the birds themselves ? If we look at the original 

 plates of " The Poidtrj' Book " we find the hock feathers de- 

 cidedly projecting ; and in the description given of the cock I 

 find : — " Thighs wide apart, &c., feathered quite down to the 

 hock or knee, and the feathers even projecting beyond it, as in 

 the Falcon ;" and yet this is of n-coit origin ! ! Cochins and 

 Brihmas have certainly this in common, that the thighs are 

 fluffy, and the feathers veiy numerous as compared with other 

 breeds. This abundance of feathers in all good specimens of 

 these breeds should hide the hock joint from view, except on 

 the inside. This has always been the case in good specimens. 

 Soon it was found that the actual falcon hocks — the feathers 

 reaching some inches beliind the joint — were accompanied by 

 profusely-feathered legs ; and as heaviness of feathering is an 

 essential in both these breeds, the actual falcon-hocked birds 

 were probably used for breeding, and I apprehend there is no 

 good breeder of either Cochins or Brahmas that wishes for 

 naked-hocked birds, and none, I fancy, who would object to the 

 soft feathers projecting half an inch or more behind and around 

 the joint ; for myself, I should not object to an inch, j)ro%'ided 

 the feathers were soft and curving inwards. The rage against 

 the moderate vultiue hock is recent, if you like, and like all 

 extremes will do, nay, is doing harm. I have quite recently 

 had a Brahma cockerel sent me on approval. Well, the first- 

 rate breeder to whom he belonged eWdently had the fear of the 

 hock before his eyes, and the hock joint was not hidden from 

 view when looked at posteriorly ; as a consequence of this 

 paucity of feathers at the hock, the upper part of the leg was 

 comparatively poorly feathered. 



There are certain characteristics of breeds, and most as- 

 suredly the covered hock joint is the property of Cochins and 

 Brahmas, as opposed to Malays, Dorkings, Game, Spanish, &c. 

 In the other breeds the hock is bare, the joint fully exposed, and 

 it coincides with the general close-feathering of these breeds. 

 As it appears to me, to disquaUfy birds because vulture- 

 hocked is extremely unjust, and I quite agree with you that 

 the vulture hock is necessary in moderation. But if this defect 

 when stiff can, by a dishonest ejJiibitor, be remedied by pull- 

 ing, and in this condition be "very difficult of detection," 

 surely it is an additional reason for not being so strict on the 

 point. It would be very interesting to myself, and I doubt not 

 to many other breeders of feathered-legged poultry, if the able 

 Judge before alluded to would kindly describe what the leg 

 ought to be. I myself should prefer hock feathers, projecting 

 from half an inch to an inch over the joint, provided the 

 feathers were soft. The stiff-feathered hock I do not like, but 

 commend me to the feathering of leg that always attends it. 

 The remarks of " Clekicus" are much to the point, and I hope 

 win assist in saving the best birds from being ruined. 



The trimming alluded to by the Judge cannot be detected ex- 

 cept on very close and careful examination of each specimen, 

 and when the duties of a Judge imder such circumstance would 

 be completed in a close competition, it would be hard to say. 



There are certainly some eccentricities in poultry-judging. A 

 ^Priggy comb is a disqualification in Spanish or Cochin, but 

 you may trim and remove it. I have bred many a first-rate 

 Poland but for the spriggy combs. No good Poland wants a 

 comb, although he has more hair, or rather feathers, on his i 



head than other breed, and might be supposed to want it 

 more. Well, may I remove these ? If it is allowable to remove 

 sprigs from the other combs where they are not wanted, surely 

 it is allowable to remove it in Polands. You may trim a Game 

 face, but woe betide you if your pincers should try to improve 

 a Spaniard's visage. The sooner the regulation against trim- 

 ming is removed by committees the better, for at present it 

 is used in an arbitrary manner. 



Since writing the above I have read with great pleasure the 

 remarks of " Justitia," and I heartily thank him or her for 

 them. The exact point is touched in these words : " If what 

 is sanctioned one year may be reprobated the next, what 

 ground of secm-ity have we to stand upon ?" And if we are to 

 leave our pets to the fancies and vagaries of every person who 

 is styled a judge, we shall never know what to aim at ! Nay, 

 we are not certain that in a year or two the very opposite may 

 not be considered requisite, and the shifting of the points to be 

 sought after is fatal to success. I trust your own remarks and 

 those of other exhibitors will show the judges that wo do not 

 intend to have our birds injured to suit their fancies. I can 

 recollect in the early Brahma days a judge, who shall be name- 

 less, disqualifying one of my Brahma cocks because he was 

 pea-combed. Well, suppose exhibitors had set to work to 

 breed single-combed birds, would not one of the great beauties 

 of the breed have been lost ? Save us from our friends if these 

 are aU the kindnesses they can show us ! — T. B. A. Z. 



DRAGOON PIGEONS. 



My attention was called the other day to a letter which ap- 

 peared in your valuable paper of December 19th, from Mr. 

 John PerciVall, of Birmingham, relative to the judging of some 

 of the Pigeon classes at the late Birmingham Exhibition. I 

 I regret that so much time has passed since the insertion of that 

 letter; as many of your readers have, doubtless, taken for 

 ' granted that the whole of Mr. Percivall's unanswered letter 

 1 was correct. Mr. Percivall's opinion as a breeder of this very 

 beautiful variety of Pigeon should certainly be taken notice of, 

 . and, henceforward, we must at least thank him for telling us 

 i what a good Dragoon should not be. I am, however, sorry to 

 ' say that I think his letter has unjustly influenced many fanciers 

 who once possessed good bh'ds of this type, but who have since 

 ! discarded them on account of what Mr. Percivall considers a 

 blemish, and, to use his own language, sufficient to exclude them 

 I from taking a prize — viz., the lower part of the back being 

 '; white, or their being, as it is termed, " wbite-rumped." I must 

 I here admit, that since the publication of Mr. Percivall's views, 

 I have become possessed of some vei^y handsome birds having 

 the white patch he protests against strongly marked, which, 

 I but for that gentleman's opinion, I should have been unable to 

 obtain. I feel convinced that the remarks he has made upon 

 ! this subject, if left unanswered, would be detrimental to the 

 fancy, and calculated to make a rare iind useful variety of 

 Pigeon still more scarce, by weeding from its numbers the 

 most beautiful of their kind ; and it is for this reason that I 

 feel prompted to say a few words upon the subject. 



Had Mr. Percivall argued in favour of drawing a line of dis- 

 tinction between the Dragoons and their very near relatives 

 the Carriers, instead of bringing them nearer together (as he 

 undoubtedly does, by admitting only birds of a uniform colour), 

 he might, perhaps, have supplied a want long felt by the fancy. 

 Dragoons, or Dragons, were unmistakeally inferior Carriers ; 

 and the Blues, Yellows, and 'Whites, being unable to compete 

 with the Blacks and Dnus, have, most properly, had another 

 name assigned them, and by careful and judicious breeding 

 are now more dissimilar than they were years ago. They 

 possess all the beauty and symmetry of form of the Carriers, 

 without that preponderance of wattle which so frequently 

 makes them appear ugly, though it is the chief characteristic 

 of the latter. Having thus adopted another name for these 

 birds, and worked for different points to render them more 

 unlike — to detach them, as it were, from the Blacks and Duns, 

 and make them worthy their new name, is, I think, what the 

 Dragoon breeder has striven for : and, therefore, to follow Mr. 

 Percivall and his fancy would be to certainly retrograde, in- 

 stead of progress nearer to perfection. 



1 contend that the white-rumped Blue Dragoons are a purer 

 blue, the bars a deeper black, the neck of a better metallic 

 lustre, the eye a brighter orange, and free from the dark circle 

 round the iris, and altogether forming a better contrast than 

 those of a darker or more sombre colour. I am not praising 



