296 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ April 13, 1876. 



bed of the trne sort, and except in the colonr of the flower, which is not 

 matcrifll, it is identical. You should send in a small box ; the flowers were 

 pressed quite flat. (6., Douinpatrick). — We cannot name plants team their 

 leaves, flowers must bo with them. 



POULTET, BEE, AM) PIGEON OHROMOLE, 



LAST TEAR'S COCKERELS. 

 We suppose that nearly all who go ia for breeding fowls to 

 any extent find at the end of the autumn that they have a lot of 

 BuperflaouB cockerels, and do not know what to do with them. 

 We think there are many of onr fresh hands, who are but as yet 

 young in the craft, that then want to part with these birds at 

 any cost. They fill up the runs and get in the way of the 

 growing chickens, or break through their bounds and appear 

 in forbidden places, worrying the hens, and altogether getting 

 terribly in the way. So, perhaps, these cockerels are offered for 

 sale at ridicalouBly low prices, or are made into soup and used 

 in the kitchen. Now, many of these birds are really the birds 

 which make the winning two-year-old cocks. We would re- 

 commend great care being taken in weeding out these cockerels. 

 So many of oar young hands fancy because such birds never 

 won a prize in their youth that they will not in time to 

 come. No idea can be more deceptive, for over and over again 

 we have noticed that the best two-year-old cocks are the birds 

 ■which as cockerels were nothing very grand. We should state 

 that we allude to Dnrkings, Cochins, Brahmas, French, and 

 Polands more especially. 



Very rarely have we noticed that those cockerels (especially 

 in Cochins) which make such a sensation in their first year 

 come much to the front after their moult, and their places are 

 filled in the second year by birds which, though they were perhaps 

 of the same brood as the winning chickens, were looked upon 

 then as "ugly ducklings," and ran risks of being eaten or sold 

 cheaply. The old hands know better, and can often spot a 

 bird which is to make the winner in his second year; but the 

 amateurs, for whom we especially write, are not up to the full 

 knowledge of breeding, and so repeatedly make away with valu- 

 able birds. We did it ourselves when we began, and we can well 

 remember selling a late cockerel many years ago for 15.s,, which 

 after his moult came out a winner over and over again at good 

 places. The best of this case, however, was that the purchaser 

 expected for 15s. to get a show bird then and there ; so when the 

 bird came he wrote back indignantly, saying a " weed " had 

 been sent which was not worth 2s. 6d., and we then in our 

 simplicity sent the man a sitting of eggs to induce him to keep 

 the bird, as we had no room at home. It was consequently 

 very mortifying to see the " weed " winning in the next year 

 wherever he went. This, however, is annually happening to 

 very many— we mean the parting with valuable birds because 

 they do not then come np to the ideal standard which the eye 

 tells them they should do. 



We know of several breeders who go round at the Birming- 

 ham and the Crystal Palace Shows, thoroughly examining every 

 specimen, to see if they can see there any bird which promises 

 to make up into a pood two-yearold, and 'if they find such they 

 will buy them at any price in reason, and over and over again 

 those birds are birds which do not in their first year even get 

 a commendation card. Only a few days ago we read in a con- 

 temporary how Mr. Hinton had a Polish cockerel which never 

 won a prize as a chicken, and yet after his moult became a 

 notorious bird. And to quote a case which came quite under 

 our own eyes : One of the first-prize Cochin cocks at the last 

 Bristol Show was a bird which not only never won as a chicken, 

 or looked even approaching the exhibition form, but was not 

 thought even worthy of being bred from, though we confess 

 ■we never did at-ree in this respect. Still this bird with plenty 

 of good living thickened and filled out, and came out from his 

 moult one of the best oocks of the colour of the year, and has 

 never been shown without winning a first prize or cup. 



We shall, perhaps, be asked 'o account for this. We can only 

 answer that we conclude that exhibiting a young bird of a large 

 or heavy breed to any extent weakens bis constitution ; or he is 

 marked as a promising bird and a likely future winner, and is 

 petted and pampered with meat or spiced foods, and so being 

 forced-on in his early months he has not the vigour and consti- 

 tation to thicken-out and develope, and come out from his moult 

 large and bright in plumage. It is not always so of course, but 

 we repeat that overshown birds and champion cockerels rarely 

 make old cocks of note, and we look forward to next autumn to 

 Bee how the Buff Cochin cockerel which has so often come to 

 the front in the past season will then appear after his moult; 

 that he will never make the bird that Mr. W. A. Burnell's is we 

 feel pretty sure. But to return to last year's cockerels generally. 

 Let us not discard any birds which, possessing in moderation 

 the proper points, ■want only weight or size, for such birds 

 when allowed to run together in a good run will amply repay 

 all trouble and food expended upon them. Wo would recom- 

 mend such birds not being bred from the first year, and being 



well fed on good food twice a-day, allowing them to have as 

 much as they will eat at a meal. They can live together, in a 

 shady rue if possible, all through the summer, and then about 

 the early part of September, or even in the last weeks of August, 

 they would do well if taken up and placed in little pens — i or 

 5 feet square would do perfectly ; and then when well fed 

 three times a day, and supplied with plenty of green food and 

 dust, they will moult out well, and often make np into valuable 

 two-year-olds. We mean that discretion must be used, and the 

 birds selected, as we before said, which, possessing the required 

 points, only need size and weight. Nearly every breeder has 

 such birds, and two or three worthy of this treatment can 

 generally be selected in January or February from the superior 

 cockerels which are usually found in establishments of any 

 size. — W. 



COUNTRY NOTES. 



The writer has found, little by little, that there is something 

 to be learned every hour ; but knowledge is profitless and not 

 worth acquiring if it cannot be disseminated and compared. 

 Among the many readers of this paper how many there are who 

 think they have nothing to communicate, when in fact they 

 possess the information others are looking for. We may not 

 look for another Gilbert White, but much of his charming book 

 is founded on his observations of things belonging to natural 

 history. In our country residences we have the book of nature 

 open before us. When the snow is on the ground, and he " who 

 loveth man, and bird, and beast" stores up his crumbs and 

 teaches his children to feed those that lack, how pleasant to 

 watch them— Blackbird, Thrush, Bobin, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, 

 Hedge Sparrow — all laying aside fear, inasmuch as so long as 

 they pick only snch pieces as they can at once swallow they 

 remain and do so, but if they become possessors of a large piece 

 they retire out of sight to eat it. So long as the severe weather 

 lasts they •x'M come regularly to meals, but when their natural 

 food appears they come no more : it is the old story of the Eaven 

 let out of the Ark. But the winter is hardly at an end before 

 we have the harbingers of spring. The Blackbirds and Eobins 

 are pairing ; the Sparrows chase the feathers driven by the wind ; 

 the Rooks have strange palavers in high trees, where they do 

 not mean to breed. 'Then begins the continual looking for the 

 return of the migratory birds, with a view to noting the arrival 

 of the first. The Chiftchaff, or Peetweet as it is called in divers 

 places, is seen ; and being known as the forerunner of the Night- 

 ingale, likely places are visited night and morning in hopes of 

 hearing him. Then the Cuckoo is heard, but must be heard 

 cautiously. All rustics are not simple ; and the rosy-cheeked, 

 guileless-looking, flaxen-headed boy, who has been practising 

 the " real wild note " in the lane where you heard it, and whence 

 he is just emerging, touches his hat and says " he heerd the 

 Cuckoo just now in the lane." And then the Swallows, coming 

 not only to their old haunts but to the identical spots, making 

 their new nests where the ruins of the old ones mark last year's 

 locality, and other birds. 



Where this is being written a Robin is sitting in an open 

 place, passed and looked at twenty times per day, distinctly 

 visible, head and tail plainly seen. She is never disturbed, 

 and has no fear. Not far from the spot, in the bend of a ■vine 

 branch, a Flycatcher has built for years ; she always returns 

 to the same spot, and does not object to being watched while 

 building or sitting. A pair of Blackbirds build in a thick 

 shrub, and have done so for years. If you have a copse near 

 through which there passes a stream go down in the evening, 

 and choosing a quiet spot where you may see without being 

 seen. Probably the first bird you will see will be a Kingfisher 

 sitting on a bough overhanging the water. With its feathers a 

 little "set up," its head broujbt back between its shoulders, its 

 appearance would almost justify anyone in believing it was in a 

 "brown study," and over the hills and faraway. Not so. With 

 lightning quickness it has left the bough, has dipped into a 

 shallow near at hand and returned to its perch with a struggling 

 minnow in its beak. If this latter should be too vigorous it then 

 beats it against the bough, on which it sits till it is stunned and 

 then swallowed. It then relapses into its old heedless attitude 

 until it sees another minnow. 



Hark! the scarcely audible rustling, and the small drops 

 into the water. It is a Moor Hen and her family; they are 

 mailing their way to that patch of weeds where they will find 

 their food. See the pretty Dabchick coming from under the 

 lank, her brood of little black dots looking as though as many 

 humble bees had fallen into the water. Pugea might be ■written 

 on these things. The soothing note of the Wood Pigeons; the 

 deep, rich, rolling song of the Blackbird seated in a bush ; tha 

 bold challenging notes of the Thrush on the highest tree it can 

 find ; the sweet song of the Hedge Sparrow, the Whitethroat, 

 the Redstart, and many others. 'They make pure and exquisite 

 enjoyment. They open a book in which there is no sameness, 

 and in which no one can look without learning. Many a one 

 to whom it at first meant nothing has learned to leave it with 

 regret. 



