478 



JODRNAIi OF HOBTICULTORB AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



( November 2(1, 187L 



claimed tor a total of 175, and Mr. Tegetmeier'e Blue Dragoon 

 found a purchaser at 115 los. 



Ill couclusioQ WG must express our great sorrow on finding 

 Mr. Hewitt's well-known face so conspicuous by it.s absence. 

 We are indeed sorry to hear he is poorly again, and trust it is 

 only a passing illness, and that we shall find him at Birmingham, 

 and find him well. 



PIGEONS (by "Wiltshire Bectoe.") 

 (ConclU'led from page 460.) 



Trampelers. — First a wonderful Black ; second Mottled ; third 

 Black. 



Owh (English). — First-aud-cup thorough English; second, 

 save in colour, as good as first ; third a Silver, a very noble bird, 

 but bars not quite so good as second. This was a strong class, 

 and very high commendations very numerous. 



Owh (Forcigu). ^First-aud-cup a charming White, not over- 

 clean. AH the winners were White, and I am happy to say the 

 two classes of Owls seemed distinct — one large and fine, the other 

 small and elegant. 



Turhifs (Blue and Silver). — Turbits are clearly great favourites. 

 First-aud-cup, a beautiful Silver; the extra second as beautiful a 

 Blue, bars raven. The whole class was excellent. 



Turbits (Any other colour).— I can enually praise this class. 

 Red shouldered, yellow-shouldered, and black-shouldered Wrds 

 stood before me in rare excellence. 



Next followed a long lot of good Magpies of various colours. 



Bunts. — May I ask that these birds be provided with larger 

 cages next year ? — they literally were cramped, and could not 

 well turn. I plead in the cause of kindness, and also the birds 

 would look better. (Mr. Wilson, please read, and when having 

 read make a note of.) 



Flying Tumblers. — A comparatively new class, and I was de- 

 lighted that the Crystal Palace admitted them, for no Pigeons 

 have more enthusiastic admirers. First and second, pretty 

 Yellow Mottles, which looked the real thing, but the third was 

 too much a Short-face. 3916, a good blood-red bird. 



Aniivcrps (Short-ficed). — Many of these birds struck me as 

 being too heavy in build and wattle. The first (Mr. Ludlow's), 

 was quite my idea of a show Antwerp. 



Next the Homing Autwerps. — Many of these racehorse 

 Pigeons looked "ready, aye! ready." The prize pairs were 

 bea((ti{ully matched, whether they were Red or Blue Chequers, 

 and their colour, no doubt, guided very much the Judges; in- 

 deed, I never saw more beautiful Blue Chequers. And oh. 

 Pouter fanciers ! Chequer as well as Mealy is a beautiful colour, 

 and deserving of culture and class. 



The four pair pens. — These largo pens were removed a dis- 

 tance from the other Pigeons, and formed a striking feature of 

 the Show. There were sixteen of them, and they only had one 

 fault — viz., that the cocks will fight. First-prize Trumpeters, 

 Laced Fautails,. Jacobins, and Turbits. Mr. Serjeantson showed, 

 but not for competition, a beautiful group of Fantails. In pen 

 ■1112 was a pair of Mealy Frillbacks, an unusual colour. Perhaps 

 more strangers paused over these pens than any others, and, 

 indeed, they are very attractive in spite of the pugnacity of their 

 occupants. 



Any other variety, like the toast of " The Ladies," always 

 comes last, and, like the ladies, excels in beauty ; but I have 

 seen a longer class and a prettier — because longer for it was 

 pretty, and, like the lady in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's 

 Dream, when taunted with her shortness, replied— 

 " Not so short but I can reach your eyes ; " 



so they reached mine, not to injure them, as she meant to do, 

 but to delight them. 



Such were the Pigeons at the Palace— a goodly Show of good 

 birds, the Selling class included; for in it were birds that at 

 some shows would have been prize birds in prize classes. The 

 gratification which such a Show must have afforded to young 

 and old, gentle and simple, must have been very great. I heard 

 hundreds express admiration. I saw young folks gazing and 

 gazing. The schoolboy longing, no doubt, for Pigeons which 

 his " Governor " will first object to, then grumbling assent to, 

 and then in his turn admire and pet. 



railway companies have announced numerous excursions from 

 most districts, and altogether the prospects of the success of the 

 Exhibition never looked brighter. 



BiBMiNOHAM PouLTBY Show. — ^The time is rapidly approaching 

 for the holding of this great annual gathering in the midlands. 

 The Hall has been thoroughly renovated, and many improve- 

 ments for the comfort of visitors added. The 2177 i^onltry 

 entries exhibit a large increase, and the show of Turkeys alone 

 will exceed the total of many local shows ; whilst Brahma 

 Pootras, which a few years ago were in the Variety class, now 

 far exceed any other sort in numbers and importance, ha\-iug 

 ten classes, forty-one prizes, six i'.5 5s. silver cups, and over five 

 hundred pens. The stock and poultry arrive on Thursday and 

 Friday next, and already the leading implement exhibitors and 

 seedsmen are filling np their allotted spaces. The telegraph 

 wires have been extended to the Hall ; and a branch post office 

 will be opened there previous to and during the Show. 'Ihe 



THE COMING BRISTOL POULTRY SHOW. 



Mk. C.uibiudge's efforts have been crowned with success, and 

 there is to be the annual Bristol Show. But this is not all : it 

 is to be Bristol Show with improvements. Thus there are the 

 following additions to the prize list : In poultry, prizes fur White 

 Dorkings, cocks any age, and for hens any age ; Brown or Par- 

 tridge Cochins, for cockerels of 1874, also for pullets of 1874 ; for 

 White Cochins, cockerels of 1874, and pullets of 1874 ; for Game 

 (Brown-breasted Reds), cocks any age, and hens any age ; Hou- 

 dans, cock any age, and hen any age; also there are prizes for 

 Leghorns any variety, cock any age, hen any age. The increase 

 in the prizes for Pigeons is also very considerable. Thus this 

 year for Carriers, cooks bred in 1874, and hens the same; for 

 Pouters, Black or Blue cock, and also for hen ; Barbs, any colour 

 cock over one year, and hens the same ; and Barbs of 1874, cock 

 or hen. For .Jacobins, Red or Yellow, cock or hen, any age ; 

 Turbits, Red or Yellow, any age, cock or hen ; prizes also for 

 Magpies, Dragoons lired in 1874, and Antwerps of this year, any 

 variety. There are Selling classes both for poultry and Pigeons, 

 six for the former, two for the latter. By the new rules a cock 

 and one or more hens, or two or more hens by themselves, may 

 be sent in the same hamper ; and several pens of Pigeons may be 

 sent in the same package, provided they are properly separated 

 and labelled. 



Thus, then, I trust the coming Bristol Show will be not only 

 a pleasure, as it always was, but financially a success. No doubt 

 many pens of poultry and Pigeons will be sold at so large a 

 Show at the end of the season, when surplus stock is apt at 

 home to " hang in hand." — Wiltshire Rector. 



THE POULTRY-KEEPER.— No. 28. 



PADUAS OR POLANDS (Continued). 

 The feathers of the back (fig. 1315) and those of the breast are 

 spangled at the end and barred beyond the middle under the 



Fig. 137.— Shoulder reatber. 



Fig. 18G.— Back Feather. 



overlapping feathers. Those of the shoulders (fig. 137) are 

 white in the middle, surrounded by a deep black border. This 

 border decreases in the covert feathers of the tail (fig. 138), and 

 become slightly bordered in the large feathers of the wing and 

 tail (Jig. 13!)). The feathers of the sides and abdomen turn to 

 down, and are of a mingled greyish colour. A collar of small, 

 short, turned-up feathers surround the cheeks and the under 

 part of the beak. 



The eye is very large, and the pupil of a brick red. The leg 

 is blue in all the varieties. The varieties are all alike in form. 



The cock of the Golden and Silver varieties essentially differs 

 from the hen in plumage. The crest, the hackle, the lanco- 

 shaped feathers, and the shoulders are of a variable Bhining 



