December 30, 1869. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOBTIOUIjTUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



535 



nal colour and white merely a sport or imported by a cross, 

 as in the case of white Barbs, whose white is bat a smudgy 

 white compared to that •! a Funtail. Anglo-Indians tell me 

 that in Hindostan, where some of the natives are ardent 

 Pigeon-fanciers, the Fantail is a great favourite and is always 

 white, and they admire most those birds which throw their 

 heads furthest back. When other-coloured Fantails are shown 

 they are always inferior, and some even ugly (to my mind) ; 

 for instance, the blue birds are so, seen from behind — a white 

 Fantail always looks best : so much does the bird owe to its 

 colour. 



Fantails, although preferring, when feeling at home and at 

 ease, to walk on the ground or bask on a wall or low roof, and 

 never taking a fly round, yet, if strange and frightened, will 

 fly some distance, as over a church and across a breadth of 

 shrubbery. It is well never to let them out in high winds, as 

 their tails aro then very burdensome to them, and prevent 

 them even walking with comfort. Fantails seem in their dis- 

 position to be very affectionate, as you may notice that a pair 

 are constantly sitting side by side. 



I now wish to state a few words on the judging of Fantails at 

 shows. I wholly disapprove of the judges deciding entirely by 

 the flatness of the tail ; that is as bad, or even worse, than 

 judging Almonds simply by the head and beak. Where you 

 find a perfectly flat tail you find usually a coarse head, a short 

 neck, and little or no motion, and large legs ; indeed, instead 

 of a delicate bird, highly tremulous, and so elegant that every 

 one must notice it, yon get a strong-looking and coarse bird. I 

 have been watching and breeding two opposite strains of these 

 birds the whole of this year — the larger and very flat-tailed 

 variety so in favour with some English judges, and the deli- 

 cate pe(i(« bird whose head is lost behind its neck, whose mo- 

 tion is incessant, and whose elegance is supreme ; and yet some 

 judges appear to be guided entirely by a tail, flat I grant, but 

 lipping forward towards the head, like an artificial thing, while 

 the bird has no motion and little elegance of shape, and all 

 this while the proper name of this Pigeon is — the Broad-tailed 

 Shaker. Carriage, and motion, and smallness must be more 

 looked to, and with them let breeders try to get as flat a tail as 

 may be, but with the former and more valuable points well 

 developed ; the result will be the exhibition of birds which even 

 a novice will pause over and regard as something quite unlike 

 a common Pigeon. The coloured birds, doubtless, get their 

 colouring from a cross with a Bunt, and are often neatest in 

 shape. — WiLTBHiBK Rector. 



OKIGIN OF THE HIMALAYAN RABBIT. 



It appears to me that the theory favoured by " Duckwing " — 

 namely, that the Rabbit commonly called Himalayan is a cross 

 between Silver-Greys and Chinchillas — is very far-fetched and 

 hard to believe. The distinctive characteristics of the Himalayan 

 are so peculiar that it is difBcult to imagine any amoimt of 

 ingenious crossing to produce the Rabbit we now see under that 

 name. There is generally some reason for the name of a thing, 

 if we only knew it, and an >mexpected incident occurred only a 

 foi tuight ago that induces nm to believe that the breed of Rabbit 

 called Himalayan is so called because it is common in, though 

 not peculiar to, the Himalayan Mountains. An old Indian friend 

 whom I had not seen for fifteen years, and who had resided all 

 that time at Simla (the European settlement in the Himalayas), 

 followed me into my rabbitry, without our having had a word of 

 conversation about any jiarticular breed. On seeing my Lop- 

 ears he at once innocently remarked, " I have never seen Rabbits 

 of that kind before — the Rabbits wa see at Simla are ail either 

 grey or little white things with dark noses, ears, and feet." I 

 exclaimed, " Himalayan r" to which he replied, " I never heard 

 them called there anything but Rabbits, whatever you may call 

 them, and, as butcher's meat is often hard to get, we all kept 

 them for domestic use, the same as we did poxiltry." After a 

 long and, to me, interesting conversation, which he had uncon- 

 sciously started, I could come to no other conclusion than that 

 their Rabbits, as he described Ihem, were what we call 

 Himalayans, making allowance, of course, for the marking not 

 being so defined as with us, who have a special aim in view in 

 breeding and showing. 



Another gentleman who had spent many years in China 

 asked not long since, v,'heii we were looking at all kinds of 

 Rabbits belonging to a mutual friend, " How did you get these 

 Chinese Rabbits "■" We told hjn they were not Chinese, but 

 Himalayan, but he assured us in the moat positive manner that 



he had shot hundreds in the neighbourhood of Shanghai, as well 

 as some few in the coffee plantations in Ceylon. We tried hard 

 to shake his evidence as to the identity of the breed, but could 

 ndt, and the conclusion I come to is that it is a distinct breed, 

 and that in its natural state it mixes with no other.— B. Hudson, 

 Hull. 



CRYSTAL PALACE CANARY SHOW. 

 May I be allowed, through the medium of your paper, to 

 inform Canary-fanciers in the United Kingdom of the follow- 

 ing ? — Mr. Wilkinson has most courteously given his consent 

 to the following plan, and I hope and trust with all my heart 

 it can be carried out. It is intended at the next show at the 

 Palace to give a silver cup to the best bird in each variety, and 

 it is proposed to raise £30 or more, to be subscribed by fanciers 

 and admirers of the different varieties, and with this money to 

 buy cups of the value of from £3 to £5 each, in proportion to 

 the amount raised, and a cup will be given to the best bird in 

 the various classes in each variety. For instance, if the first- 

 prize bird in Clear Yellow Norwich is better as a yellow than 

 the first-prize bird in Clear Buff is as a huff, then the former 

 will take the cup in Classes 1 and 2, variety Norwich, and so 

 on all through. This is the way it is intended to apportion the 

 cups, eight in all : — 



Norwich 1 and 3. Clear Yellow and BuSF One cup. 



,, . , ( 3 to 8, Vni-iesated and Crested Yellow 1 „ 



^o™":l> t andBuff f "■""="»• 



Belgian 9 to 13, Clear, Variegated, and Crested.. One cup. 



London Fancy 14 and 15, Jonquc and Mealy One cup. 



Lizard 16 and 17, Gold and Silver-spangled One cup. 



Cinnamon 18 and 19, Jonque and Buff One cup. 



Mnles— Canary and ) 21 to 2-J, Clear and Variegated YeUow I q^^ 

 Goldfinch f and BuiT / 



"can7r^:rd Zy]^' ^"'^ fj^eulr?"'?!" .."'..!!'" } «""-!•■ 

 other variety .... J 



Norwich have two cups, but as the classes in that variety 

 are so numerous, and generally so well filled, it is only fair 

 that it should be so. The number of cups will of coarse 

 depend entirely on the manner the admirers of the different 

 varieties respond to the call ; if sufficient cannot be raised for 

 any particular variety, to give at least a £3 cup, no cup will be 

 given at all in that variety, and all the money collected will be 

 returned; if more than enough be raised, then, on the other 

 hand, more cups will be given to that variety which has received 

 the extra amount, and so on. For instance, if the Norwich 

 variety fanciers subscribe enough for four cups, then four cupa 

 will be given ; if the friends of any other variety, say Lizards, 

 do not subscribe at least £3, then no cap will be given to 

 Lizards at all. 



Mr. Blakston, of Snnderland, has kindly consented to receive 

 subscriptions for the cups for Belgians and Mules, and I will 

 make arrangements with some well-known fanciers to collect 

 for Norwich and other varieties. I shall send a circular to 

 every likely fancier, and I shall be happy to receive subscrip- 

 tions from any one, and for any of the classes. 



I have great pleasure in informing the Canary world that a 

 gentleman, whose name I may not yet divulge, a great winner 

 in poultry and Pigeons, told me on Monday last at the Man- 

 chester Poultry Show that he had nearly made up his mind to 

 join our ranks. I only hope he will. I think, too, ere long 

 we shall see " Wiltshibe Rector's " name among the winners. 

 Gentlemen like these will do more good than a thousand 

 " painters and stainers." — Howarth Ashton, Polefield Hall, 

 Prestwicli. ^^_ 



DR. PREUSS ON FOUL BROOD AND 

 INFECTION. 



(Continued from parjc 496.) 



Wf. shall in the first place more closely examine Cryptococ- 

 cus, as it is the parent and constant concomitant of a famihar 

 process — viz., fermentation. 



The science of fermentation is no easy one, and it cannot 

 lie within the scope of this article to treat polemically on the 

 various theories which have been advanced. Hallier's work on 

 Fermentation, Putrefaction, and Decay, which I have already 

 mentioned, affords ample information on the subject. 



The original idea of fermentation was, that it is the decom- 

 position of a fluid attended by gaseous development, but it has 

 long been proved by scientific investigation that the develop- 

 ment of gas is by no means an essential condition. On the 

 other hand, it ia essential that the;body to be decomposed by 



