274 



JOUBNAL OF IlOIiXICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENBB. I 8«pt<nib«r so, l&ca. 



personage tban Mr. Calcraft, \cbo, it may not be generally 

 known, was twenty years ago a bighly successful and humane 

 breeder of Lop-ears. 



4. rosilion vf Ear. — Tbe roand or convex side should be 

 outwards, and it cannot bang too close to the face, or too 

 much forward. 



5. ilaki' and Carriage. — A Rabbit should bo broad and 

 low in the bboulder, and high behind, always provided it is not 

 low from weak and crooked legs ; this gives shapeliness and 

 elegance to its movements when combined with length. The 

 head of n doe should be long and line, and some even prefer a 

 buck with tbiB characteristic, but some think that, like a bull- 

 dog's, tbe uglier it is tbe better. 



C. Tlie Kijc. — This should be large, bright, and prominent, 

 like that of tbe wild Babbit. In judging, I should not attach 

 so much importance to the eye in a grey or grey and white as 

 in other colours, as it is always larger, probably owing to their 

 retaining more of the original type, as their colour betokens. 



7. W,i(jkt. — Here the scales are the best judges. 



I would now invite some of your more experienced readers, 

 such as Mr. Eayson, •' Himalayan," and others, to say some- 

 thing on the " variety " classes, as they would, doubtless, be 

 able to do the subject more justice than I could.— B. Hudson, 

 Uull. 



COLOURING AND STAINING BIRDS FOR 

 EXHIBITION. 



In the capital report of tbe bird show at Whitby, in " our 

 Journal" of September 2:'jrd, I was sorry to read of another 

 instance of Canary-staining, and I entirely agree with Mr. 

 BlakstoD, who says, " I with all societies would banish such 

 offenders, and so stamp out the disease." Acting with de- 

 termination in refusing the entries of tho.»e whose attempted 

 impositions have been detected, is, I consider, an efifectual plan 

 to adopt. Good and true exhibitors will then know there is 

 some protection for them. One thing I should like to see car- 

 ried into effect, that of posting up in every bird-show room in 

 England the names of those who may have committed them- 

 selves at any exhibition, uad this exposure to be continued for 

 a certain period. There is a law to punish an offender who 

 tries to impose a counteifeit coin upon another person, and 

 I really look upon an im'ividual who defaces Nature's works 

 as the worse of the two. If secretaries of shows, and exhibitors 

 also, have no Act of Parliament to protect them, I think it 

 high time that an aasociRtiou — one general association of all 

 the well-meaning breeders and exhibitors throughout the 

 country — were formed, and then some effectual method could 

 be framed for checking the often-practised artificial-colouring 

 system. 



At two of the recent summer shows — one at York, the other 

 at Leeds — I detected three instances of stained Canaries. That 

 fat the former place was a most glaring instance, and I never 

 Belt more disgusted. It was that of a Clear Yellow Norwich, 

 chown by a Mr. Bailey, with whom I afterwards had some 

 tonversation on the Y'ork show-ground. He sought an in- 

 erview, and doubted whether bis bird was coloured. I pro- 

 duced a white handkerchief with some of the colouring matter 

 upon it, when he said, " I purchased the bird of a Northampton 

 man, and shall send it back, and I wish to ask you, if he 

 do not return the amount paid for it, will you give evidence 

 should I take proceedings in the County Court for its reco- 

 very ?" To this I agreed. Now, as the show took place about 

 midsummer, and as I met Mr. Bailey in the Koyal Park, Leeds, 

 a month back, and he not having even mentioned the circum- 

 stance, I, in justice to the Northampton school, must say that 

 I have never yet found an instance, or even heard of an arti- 

 ficially-coloured specimen being shown by a Northampton ex- 

 hibitor. The two painted specimens at Leeds were Lizards, 

 " one-ycar-off," or " out-of-featber" birds, being so doctored 

 as to be made to appear as "yearlings." Before I had done 

 with them the birds bore an odd appearance. I extracted tbe 

 colouring from one side only, leaving the oiher side as a con- 

 trast. I regret I have not just now the name of the exhibitor 

 of the Lizards. At both shows I posted tliem up with con- 

 spicuous cards in front of the cages. — G. J. Baeneset, Derby. 



without one or more instances of the kind tmongst my own 

 bees. I have already stated bow they act in these cases in m; 

 former letter on swarming. I have had one tbii> season, and as 

 it may be of some interest to your readers, I will describe it. 

 I had a storified hive which threw oS a swarm ; I caught the 

 queen (the old one) and returned her to the hive, the rest of 

 the bees following. I then ventilated it ; but in ten days it 

 swarmed again, also with the old queen, and I again returned 

 it. Next day it did the same, and both queens came away, bat 

 were returned. They repeated the process tbe day after, and 

 this time with a young queen, and were again put back next 

 morning ; they came out again with the old queen, and being 

 again returned, issued twice more during tbe same day with 

 young queens. As I was now beginning to be tired of so mncb 

 swarming, I took half the combs, together with the supers and 

 put them in the old hive's place, removing the stock hive with 

 half its combs to a new stance, and by allowing all the bees to 

 return to their old place they were not much tbe worse, and 

 finished their supers as well as if they bad never swarmed, and 

 the old stock soon became strong enough to entitle it to be con- 

 sidered a good stock hive. — A Ijanabkshirs BEE-KEsrEB. 



ATTEMPTS AT BEE-KEEPING IN INDIA. 



I AM indebted to an unknown friend in the great Asiatic 

 peninsula for a copy of a recent number of tbe Siturday fditon 

 of 7'/ii' Indian Daily Xfirs, from which I extract the fallowing 

 interesting article. — A Devosshibe Bee-keepeu. 



A YOUNG QUEEN WITH A FIRST SWARM. 



With regard to the inquiry of " C. H. H.," page 197, I beg 

 to say that it is quite a common ocsurrence for a young quicn 

 to leave with the first swarm, and scarcely » seuaou passes 



Amusements of a Natdralist — Bees. 

 Bees that collect boncy arc fonnd in almost all conctries. And 

 wherever EDglisbmen go to make new homes for themselves, if they 

 find there are noue, or none of the right kind to meet their wishes, 

 they soon manage to get some from home. Bees occnpy a very im- 

 portaut place iu creation, and perform very important functions in 

 rendering fraitfal the seed-vessels of vegetables and ilowers. In New 

 Zealand, it is said that tbe Clover taken from home and sown there 

 prodnced beautiful crops of fodder, but no seed, till the English honey 

 bee was imported. In India there is no lack of honey bees. There 

 are three kinds that are especially interesting. Tbe large bee, that 

 constructs its combs on the boughs of trees, makes a comb about the 

 size of tbe half of on ordinary cart-wheel. The bee is as large as a 

 hornet, and its sting is fully as poisonous. I began amoaing myself 

 with this creature, but I thought it necessary to go about forming an 

 acquaintance with it very caotionsly. I thought it advi.^able, first of 

 all, to understand the extent of its abihty to produce hurt. I could 

 pretty well judpe of its honey-producing capacities from what I had 

 seen of its comb, — 3 inches thick near tbe bough upon which it was 

 built, and ii:deed at times thicker if the bough were a thick one, and 

 in the thinnest part where the breeding was carried on, fully 2 J inches 

 iu thickness. "The npper part, that is to say, about a depth of 4 inches, 

 was occupied with honey ; and a full-sized comb would be about 3 feet 

 along tbe bough, that is to say, comb filled with honey, 3 feet long 

 aud from 4 to o inches deep. A goodly quantity of sweet-stuff this, to 

 be bad for the gathering. The best way of gathering is to get a 

 quantity of rnbbish together, put it under tbe hive, or more properly 

 the comb, and set Hre to it in the evening. Bees cannot bear smoke, 

 and there are most alarming tales told about travellers ha^-ing made 

 fires under trees in the daytime, without first looking np to see if the 

 smoke might be any annoyance to any one up above. I rememt>er an 

 Arab horse-dealer once acting thus imprudently, and almost before his 

 horses were picketed, the infuriated saamngs — that is the native 

 name — began to sting tbe horses, and in tbe course of ten minutes 

 every horse fied from the encampment, tearing hke mad horses, at 

 every point of tbe compass ; the syces trying in vain every posaible 

 dodge hut the right one to escape the infuriated creatures. Two of 

 the horses that conld not escape early enough died from the stings 

 they received, and of the men several were ill for days. I did not 

 know of the certainty of such cases as this, when I sought to make tbe 

 acquaintance of the sanrung honey-bee. The object I bad in view was 

 to domesticate them ; and I knew I cotild not do so unless I conld 

 establish a sort of friendship with them. I found a fine large hive 

 near my bouse, suspended from a large branch on a mango tree. My 

 first object was to get hold of one individual bee by itself. I thought 

 it safer to ascertain what conld bo done with one before I attempted a 

 number. A marble from a goolail • soon brought down about half-a- 

 dozen, and they were rather at my mercy in that stafe. I quietly 

 proposed to one that we should make each other's acquaintance ; he 

 offered no objection, but when I took hold of bis wings bo protruded 

 bis sting. I said — '* Exactly so ! what is its value ? " — and presented 

 the little finger of my left hand in return. In an instant the bee was 

 under my foot, for with a force which I bad not counted upon, the 

 sting was ibrnst home into my finger. Fortunately it pierced the 



• PeUet-bow. 



