November 25, 1869. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOSTIOULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



427 



which Birmingham has abundant reason to congratulate itself, 

 the arrangements are progressing with the prospect of a most 

 satisfactory result. As compared viith former years, the entries 

 are far above the average, and we are informed that a consider- 

 able number of cattle have been refused. The prizes for sheep 

 having been much increased, a grand display is anticipated, 

 particularly from the local Shropshire breeders, whilst there is 

 no doubt that the exhibition of pigs will maintain its character 

 33 one of the first in the kingdom. The raising of the fees on 

 poultry has slightly diminished the numbers ; but 2500 pens of 

 nearly every known variety of fowls and Pigeons will certainly 

 be as many as most visitors will care to inspect. The root and 

 corn show forms a most useful and interesting feature, and 

 will be far better than anticipated in the earlier part of the sea- 

 son. As regards the space appropriated to implements and mis- 

 cellaneous articles, we understand that the applications for its 

 allotment have been unprecedentediy numerous — so much so, 

 indeed, that in nearly all cases they have had to be curtailed. 

 Concerning the probable attendance, we have to state that the 

 facilities afforded by the railways for the conveyance of visitors 

 from other ports of the kingdom, by special and other trains, 

 will be much increased by the recent opening of branch lines, 

 and by the liberaUty of the concessions made by the various 

 companies in this respect, the excursion trains being most 

 numerous and at particularly low fares, the districts from 

 which these run comprising the whole of Yorkshire, Lanca- 

 shire, Wales, Salop, Northampton, Leicester, Derby, Cam- 

 bridge, Cheshire, Hereford, Gloucester, Worcester, &e. 



HENS EATING THEIR EGGS. 

 I HAVE been pestered with cannibal hens ; but, by a con- 

 trivance of my own, I have completely put a stop to their 

 cannibalism, without the trouble of watching or the necessity 



of killing the of- 

 fenders. My plan 

 consists simply in 

 an improved nest 

 or laying box (see 

 accompanying sec- 

 tion) with a false 

 bottom, forming 

 an inclined plane, 

 down which the 

 egg rolls as soon 

 as laid, into a re- 

 e^tacle beneath ; and, of course, before the hen can have a 

 chance of pecking it, the egg is beyond her reach. Neither 

 hay nor straw must be used in the nests, but if the surfaces 

 of the inclined planes are covered with smooth matting, a 

 piece of old carpet, or sacking, every purpose will be answered. 

 Another advantage of this laying box, is that where several 

 hens use the same nest, the eggs are not soiled by their dirty 

 feet in wet weather. — Typo, Southport. 



ENGLISH SKY TUMBLER PIGEONS. 



Some months ago I wished to raise a new cote or loft of our 

 old English Sky-Tamblers, and found the breed extinct, or too 

 scattered, for selection. The little light blue, or black, and 

 mahogany, whole colours, were my fancy. I looked your 

 Journal over and over for weeks, and Inquired far and wide 

 without success. Lots of Short-faces (useless except as aviary 

 pets), and clumsy cross-breeds, I found, but the tidy, tiny, 

 English acrobat. Swallow-form, and that would fly hke a Lark 

 in the sky, was not to be found. I wanted a fresh stream of 

 this blood, and it proved to be exhausted in the country. 



Well, I procured a draft of half a dozen birds from Birming- 

 ham, warranted to fly and tumble — not Rollers that lose flight 

 and fall — as well as the old English breed — namely, to fly high 

 and close, and cast single rapid tumbles, almost quick as 

 lightning, and keep up any time desired. These birds are of 

 larger form than the little English Tumbler ; blue, black, and 

 red, with white flights, but not white tails, pearl eyes, and 

 clean coral legs, and their aerial performances are good, though 

 not so agile as those, 1 think, of the smaller English breed. 



In breeding, these birds throw muffed or feather-legged off- 

 spring occasionally, indeed often, hence I infer a continental 

 origin — German or Dutch probably ; and I conclude that they 

 are a cross between the continental and English Tumbler, and 

 betray their foreign connection by throwing the muffed-ltgged 



young birds, breeding back frequently : some young are clean, 

 others muffed, on the legs in the same nests. 



Can you inform me and other fanciers, if a mixed English 

 and continental breed cf Tumblers is bred in Birmingham for 

 flying, as these birds, I assume, are bred and drawn from a 

 cote of such birds ? — Reader. 



[Tour birds have evidently a cross. Most probably they were 

 bred from English on one side, and part Roller on the other. 

 You need not despair of getting the old English whole colours, 

 red and buff; the former you term, not unaptly, mahogany 

 colour. In Birmingham you will not find them, but John 

 Hobbs, dealer. Friar Bridge, Bath, will get them in a few 

 weeks or months, or even days, as in the west of England — 

 the quiet unchanging west— they are still kept, and with their 

 tidy form, clear pearl eyes, and coral feet, without even the 

 suspicion of a feather, are among our best Pigeons for general 

 purposes of amusement and interest. We have seen beautiful 

 Buff ones at Hobbs's within the last year. Black and Blue are 

 not to be had so easily. The Birmingham Roller is the most 

 vulgar of all Tumblers, and if it were extinct to-morrow it would 

 be well, but, unfortunately, it suits those who only care to see 

 the feat of turning over in the air constantly repeated, and 

 these birds crossed with bad-bred Short- faces fill the bird 

 shops. If our memory serve us rightly. Blue birds, such as 

 you want, have been advertised during the last two years in 

 this .Journal. — Wiltshike Rectok.] 



A QUID PRO QUO. 



Ax Old Com^otteemax " thinks my letter of November lllh 

 " more amusing than instructive." I meant it to be amusing. 

 I did not see any reason for attempting to make it instructive. 

 The inference, however, which I wished to convey, your corre- 

 spondent has correctly drawn in his own words — namely, that 

 committeemen should not exhibit at their own show. 



" An Old Committeejiax '' thinks that I should have pointed 

 out the way to induce committeemen " to work, without that 

 ' quid pro qxio,' a fair chance of the prizes " at their own show. 

 I do not see any necessity for doing so. If committeemen 

 desu-e anything of the kind, then they are hu-elings, with an 

 indirect and inadequate wage. I say that, as a body, they do 

 not require any such reward. If I am wrong, it is better that 

 poultry exhibitions should decline, as the "Old Committeeman" 

 seems disposed to thiok they would. Such is not likely to be 

 the case, however, as committeemen who do exhibit ia their own 

 show are, in the average of shows, hut a small minority ; and I 

 am satisfied that many of those committeemen who now exhibit 

 imder these circumstances, would withdraw from competition 

 the moment their attention was called to the matter. — Egomet. 



THE GUINEA FOWL. 



I ^-en-tuee to call the attention of poultry lovers and fanciers 

 to that very beautiful, useful, interesting, but very much neg- 

 lected bird," the Guinea fowl. 



I have looked in the list of nearly every poultry show that 

 has appeared in " our Journal," and I have never once found 

 any notices of it, if I remember aright. Now, why is this? 

 In every poultry bcok I have seen there is, at the end of the 

 chapter on various kinds of poultry, a notice of about a dozen 

 lines, dry, uninteresting, and cold, declaring the bird to be 

 wild, useless, clumsy, ugly, a bad mother, its flesh horrid, its 

 peculiar cry worse than all. People read and believe this, and 

 give the poor Guinea fowl no place in their pen, yard, or 

 enclosure. 



Now, I flatly contradict all this. With proper care and kind- 

 ness the Guinea fowl is no wilder than the Turkey, and does 

 not stroll away or lay in worse places than the Turkey. It ia 

 a far more loving mother, although it sits so late in the antuinn 

 that it is advisable to place its eggs under another hen. The 

 e^fs themselves are excellent though rather small, and the 

 flesh is beautiful (I speak from personal experience), tasting 

 very like pheasant. As for the bird's pecuhar cry, persons 

 who have lived in the country all their lives, who have been 

 surrounded by all kinds of living creatures, and who are 

 awakened every morning by the cackling of Geese, quacking of 

 Ducks, crowing cf cocks, clucking of hens, and ehirpmg of 

 chickens, will acknowledge that they could scarcely hear it, 

 and certainly never care for it ; while those other persons who 

 are afflicted with delicate nerves had better not keep poultry. 

 I We have kept Guinea fowls for years, and have made great 



