533 



JOURNAL OP HOHTIOULTOEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



[ December 10, 1874. 



MiNCHKSTEE CopPY.— Yellow, with Clear nr Grey Creitt.~l, T. M. Reid. 2, J. 

 Wilkinson, Great Horlon. 3, L. Belk. Buff, with Clear or Grey Crest.— \, T. 

 M. Reid 2 and 3, L. Belk. 



PLilv YlK^m.— YcUow, Clear, or Ticked.— I, h. Belk. 2, P. Home, Fareley. 

 3, M. Ballance. Dewabury. Buff, Clear, or Ticked.— 1^ W. HuttoD, Baildon. 

 2 and 8, J. Thack'ay. Bradford 



YoBKaHiEE.— c'iftir Yellow.— }, W. Hutton. 2, Cleminaon & Ellerton. 3, J. 

 Wilkinson. Cfear i)u#.—l, Fawoelt 4 Anderson, Baildon. 2 and 3, J. Oyerend 

 Ravensthorpe. 



YoRK^uiRE.— Evenly-marked Yellow.— I, L. Belk. 2, 3. Thackray. 

 Wilkinson. Evenly.marked Buff.—U S. HaiUBworth. 2, J. Overend. 

 Hall, Bndderbtii'Id. 



LiZABDs.— (;o/(i^n-»;j[ini7^cd.— 1, Cleminson & Ellerton. 2, M. Ballance 

 Belk. Silver-spariijled. — 1, J. Steve s. 2, S. Hainsworth, Farsley. 

 Holroyd. he, L. Belk : Cleminson A; Ellerton ; T. M Reid (3). 



C1.VNAM0N.— 1, ,T. PrinRle. NewcaHlle un-Tyne. 2, E. Holroyd. 8, Cleminson 

 and Ellerton. Varieoated.—l, T. Tenuiswood, Middlesboroatrh. 2 and 3, L. 

 Belk. 



Green Canary.— 1, T. Tenniswood. 2, J. Stevens. S, D. Gaant. 



Finches.— I. J. Home. 2, J. Overend. 3, T. Tenniswood. 



M0LES.— 1, J. Stevens. 2, W. Hutton. 3, T. Tenniswood. 



LiNNtTS —1 and 2, J. Bage, MiddleBhorough. 3, T. Tenniswood. 



Linnet Mules.— 1, . I. Stevens. 2, W. Hutton. 3,W. Exley. 



Selling Class —1, D. Hall. 2, J. Overend. 3, T. Tenniswood. 



Best Common Cottage Bird in Batlet.— 1, T. Hall. 2, B. Aspinall. 8, 

 J. Firth. 



Judge. — Mr. Harrison. 



3, J. 

 8, D. 



8, L. 

 8, T. 



The Baildon Pigeon and Bikd Show. — The Committee for 

 carrying out the next annual Exhibition of Pigeons and Cana- 

 ries, Mules, and British and Foreign Birds, to be held at Bail- 

 don on the 8th and 9th of January, 187.3, have issued a very 

 excellent schedule, well worthy the attention of intending ex- 

 hibitors. The programme sets forth thirty-one classes for cage 

 birds and fifteen classes for Pigeons, the prizes for which will 

 be 15s., 10s., and 5s. each. Extra prizes will be given, consisting 

 of a silver cup for the best competitor in the cage-bird classes, 

 and a cruet stand to the next best competitor. A silver cup and 

 a, silver medal will also be awarded to the Pigeons. Suitable 

 pens will be provided for the Pigeons. 



THE TURBIT. 



The solid Tarbits are of one uniform colour throughouti 

 excepting the tail wing-bars, and hackle or neck feathers of 

 the Blues and Silvers. They have a frill and shell-crest pre- 

 cisely as in shouldered birds, but are somewhat larger, and not 

 BO fine in head, beak, and gullet ; except the solid White, which 

 is equally as good as the shouldered birds in the points mentioned. 

 They have a reddish-orange eye as in Owls. The beak in the 

 Blue is dark, as in common Blue Pigeons. In the Black they are 

 very light at the base, but dark at the point. In all the others 

 the beak is light in colour. I have never seen or heard of plain 

 Blues or Silvers without the wing-bars, and I doubt very much 

 whether they have yet been produced. Within the past few 

 years I have bred them of the following colourings : Blues and 

 Silvers with black wing-bar, well-defined bar across the tail, and 

 dark neck feathers ; also plain Blacks, Reds, Yellows, Whites, 

 and Dun. I have not yet been able to breed Blues to my satis- 

 faction (although there are fair birds of this colour at the present 

 time in this city}, but I am in hopes of accomplishing it the 

 present season. In my attempts to breed these birds I have at 

 the present time one pair mated that are very poor in frill and 

 colour, showing brown on the wing-bar. They have at this 

 writing their second pair of young in the nest, one of which is 

 a Yellow, and the other a clear Silver ; in the first nest one is a 

 clear Red, the other a dark Silver. I make this statement to 

 show the importance of getting birds from a well-known strain, 

 and also to show how they will sport in colour when not well 

 bred, although in this case any of the young are worth more 

 than their parents. 



To further illustrate the importance of buying birds of a good 

 strain, I will here state that in 1871 I bought a pair of solid 

 Blacks from a dealer who is noted for pulling foul feathers (our 

 friend Morgan's article on the Nuns had not then been pub- 

 lished in the Journal), a habit which he had put into practice in 

 the present case ; for in a few weeks the under feathers in the 

 tail of the female came out a pure white ; but, as the sequel will 

 show, they proved a valuable pair of birds to me. The first 

 season they bred two pairs of Black young ones ; the second 

 season (1872) they bred Blacks, Blues, Yellows, Reds, and Duns. 

 The next season (1873) they produced only two or three young 

 (one of which was the brightest solid Yellow I ever owned, and 

 at this time, 1874, is mated to one of the old Y'ellow stock, and 

 is producing fine young, true to colour). While on this subject 

 I will state that in 1872 I had one pair of solid White birds that 

 produced in rapid succession five pairs of pure white young, all 

 of which they raised. In the following season, as with the 

 Blacks, they produced only two nests, only one bird of which 

 was raised. In the first nest was one white one, and one with 

 a large patch of drab on one side. In the next nest one was 

 pare white as before, the other was a pure drab or light dun. 

 This was unaccountable to me, as I had every reason to believe 

 that the birds I had were pure-bred in every respect; but, in 

 both cases, it will be noticed that variation in colour was pro- 

 duced during or immediately after excessive breeding. The 



first sign of deterioration in solid Turbits is usually seen in the 

 tail — especially with the Blues and Silvers — which will occasion- 

 ally throw white feathers. I have had solid white birds breed 

 young with smoky tails, showing plainly that at some time or 

 other black-tailed Whites had been bred with them, or used in 

 forming the solid bird. But these imperfections are not often 

 seen until the latter part of the season, when the birds are 

 weakened by breeding. 



The Reds I gave up entirely, as I seldom got them to Buit me, 

 the colour being washy, with ash-coloured tails. Neither have 

 I ever seen first-class Reds in all points ; and, aB a matter of 

 course, the Yellows cannot be as fine in colour, as Yellows bred 

 to Yellows continually will become paler in colour. This mating 

 of Yellows has been a matter of necessity, not having good Reds 

 to cross in, which no doubt would have helped them mnch. 



The other colourings not yet enumerated are the solids with 

 white tails. Of these I have had Blues, Silvers, Yellows, and 

 Duns, and I am quite positive that Blacks and Beds could be 

 found in this country at this time ; if not, they could easily be 

 produced. This class of birds will occasionally throw a solid 

 colour, but the tendency is usually the other way. I have also 

 had solid white birds with black, blue, red, and yellow tails. 

 As far as my experience goes the white birds with coloured 

 tails seldom breed foul birds. The two latter colourings I never 

 fancied enough to breed them long, as the coloured tail on white 

 birds or white tail on coloured birds always had the appearance 

 of a defect to me — the tails not being seen except from a back 

 view, and when seen from the front they could not be dis- 

 tinguished from the solid birds. — Jos. M. W-ade. — {American 

 Fanciers^ Journal.) 



[The bird above described and called the solid Turbit in con- 

 tradistinction to the real Turbit — called, it appears, in America 

 the shouldered Turbit — is a variety of Pigeon unknown in Eng- 

 land, and likely to remain so, for I should think it would be 

 quite undesired by English fanciers. In brief words it is an 

 English Owl with a shell crown, that crown obtained possibly 

 by a cross with the Nun. This solid Turbit appears to breed 

 anything but true to colour, according to Mr. Wade's account, 

 which is a sure sign of its being itself bastard-bred. His expe- 

 rience with his pair of Blacks reminds me of that of a friend of 

 mine, who bought at a show a pair of some kind of German 

 Toys, very correct indeed in feather, for the " gardening " had 

 been done extensively. In a month they were much altered in 

 plumage, and lo ! they bred young ones of every variety of colour 

 except what they were and what they ought to have been. 



The use of the word " solid " is curious, meaning whole- 

 coloured, so different to our use of the word. There is, however, 

 in Wiltshire a meaning attached to the word which I have never 

 met with elsewhere ; it is *' steady or slow." A groom will say, 

 if he has just given his horse a feed of cut grass and you require 

 the steed at once, " Please, sir, let him go ' solid,' for he has 

 just been fed." — WiLTSHntE Eector.] 



EABBIT-KEEPING— No. 1. 



The hutch I use is one of my own invention, and in sim- 

 plicity and efficiency I claim that it is as near perfection as one 

 can get in this rough-and-ready world of ours. I use two styles, 

 one for breeding, and one for weaning. 



The breeding hutch (Jig. 150) is 4 feet 6 inches long, by 3 feet 



Fig. 150. — Breeding House. 



wide, and 6 feet high. It is four storeys high, and each storey is 

 18 inches from floor to ceiling ; each storey is divided by a par- 

 tition into two apartments — a feeding and a breeding-room. 

 The floors are made of pine or spruce boards, tongned and 

 grooved, well seasoned, and put together when good and dry, so 

 that they will not shrink open. 



The breeding apartment is 17 inches wide, and extends the 



whole depth of the hutch (3 feet); a small door is cut in the 



I back part of the partition to allow the Babbit to pass from one 



