372 



JOUBNAL OP HOETICULTUBB AND COTTAGE GABDENEE. 



I May 7, 1874. 



overlooked that part when I made the inquiry. It appears from 

 that gentleman's letter that small fowls are preferred, and, if 

 such is the case (I know it is at this season of the year), the 

 laudable object the Yarmouth Committee have in view will 

 be entirely frustrated, inasmuch as the birds at the time of the 

 Show will, without doubt, be full-grown, and will therefore be 

 jio guide as to how long a chicken is in arriving at the required 

 size or weight. What should, I think, be done, is to limit the 

 age to four or five mouths, as poultry, at the time when game is 

 " in," is required much larger than it is at the present time. 

 The question is almost inexhaustible, but I have already tres- 

 passed BO much on your kindness that I will close, and, in 

 doing so, express a hope that someone else will think fit to take 

 up the thread. — Henky J. Goodenough. 



Pkecocious Pdllet. — I have a pullet (a cross between a Cri-ve- 

 Cceur cock and a Brahma hen), hatched-out on the 2nd of Feb- 

 ruary, and on yesterday the 3rd of May I discovered beyond any 

 doubt that she has laid three eggs. Can anybody beat this ? — 

 A. M., Co. MeatJi, Ireland. 



THE POULTRY-KEEPER.— No. 1. 



We asked one of the best authorities on poultry-keeping and 

 poultry- judging which he considered the best work upon these 

 subjects, and he replied, " That by M. Jacque." We im- 

 mediately made arrangements for publishing a translation, with 

 perniission to publish all the plates; we have obtained that per- 

 mission with the original wood-engravings, and commence their 

 publication to-day. 



ANATOMY OF THE HEN. 



We think it useless to give long descriptions of the interior 

 anatomy of the hen, or the formation of the ovary, or the symp- 

 toms of all the ailments, &c. We have more need of knowing 

 some points in the natural history of the fowls. Thus, for 

 example, which varieties have certain muscles more or less de- 

 veloped ; that the plumage in each kind should have certain 

 colours and certain arrangements ; that the formation of a certain 

 organ is the indication of a particular quality, &c. We shall 

 not review all the suppositions that have been made on the 

 mysteries of fecundation or of incubation ; it is enough for us 

 to say that one kind lays little or much, that its eggs are large 

 or small, that the time of incubation lasts about twenty-one 

 days, and that such and such meaus are taken to facilitate and 

 protect the hatching of the chickens, &c. We shall confine our- 

 selves to detailing that which is useful in practice, and we shall 

 not trouble ourselves as to what the hen was in olden times, nor 

 ■what the ancients say about it. 



However, some knowledge of the anatomy of a fowl is in- 

 dispensable, and we begin with the skeleton of a hen ; this 

 skeleton covered with muscles, and these muscles covered with 

 feathers. We shall add the particular anatomy of the head, of 

 which each part often serves to characterise the variety, and we 



Fig 1. 



siall conclude our anatomical notes with describing and draw- 

 ing the different feathers with which the hen is covered. 



The engraving (fg. 1), represents the skeleton of an ordinary 

 hen of an average size, and in the proportions to be generally 

 met with. 



The only important muscles are those which compose the 



Fig. 8. 



, The head, length 23 inches. 



, The neck, length 5? inches. 



, The back or fcpine. " 



', The hips or Inp-bones, The back 

 and hips comprise from the 

 shoulder to the tail ; length, 

 5-j'',; inches. 



, Rump or coceygis, length 1 1 in. 



, The shoulder-blade or shoulder. 



, Collar-bone or merrTthooght. 



t, The chest or thorax, composed 

 of the sides aod breastbone 

 (bone of the throat). It con- 

 tains the heart, liver, &o. 



!, The breastbone, length a little 

 over 3i inches. 



, The wing bones composed of — 

 a {Jig. 2), the humerus or 

 shoulder-bone of the wing, 

 length -Si inches; &, the radius 

 and the cubitus, the fore-arm 

 or pinion, length 2^ inches ; 

 c, the tip of the wing or that 

 which takes the place of the 

 hand and hngers, length 

 2^ inches. 



; The leg. composed of d ifig. 8), 

 the thigh-bone, 8] inches; 

 f, the shin-bone, length 4^ Ins.; 

 /. the bone of the foot, the 

 tarsus, length 31 inches; g, the 

 claws, that of the middle, 

 length SJ inches ; the two to 

 the right and left, length 

 ly{,- inch ; that of the back, 

 length ^ inches ; h, the pa- 

 tella or knee; z,the OS calcis 

 or heel. 



flesh, from which are formed the breast, the thigh, the leg, and 

 the wing. All the others are slender and only furnish a little 

 for table use. It is of little use to give the names of these 

 muscles, but they may be seen in fig. i. The places they occupy 



Fig. i. 



The place of the breast or white D 

 meat ; these muscles begin at 

 the shoulder and extend to the B 



abdomen, and till each side of 

 the breastbone. c 



The thigh and the leg. 

 The crop. 

 The wing. 



and the space that the feathers fiU in completing the appearance 

 of the live fowl. 



People often confound the thigh, the leg, the foot, and toes of 

 the hen ; and so it is with nearly all animals. One expects to 

 see her walk on the foot, though she walks like them on the 

 toes. The horse walks on one toe. The ostrich, the sheep, the 

 ox walk on two toes, the grallics on three, the hen, the lark on 

 four, etc. The monkeys walks on the foot, and is like man a 

 plantigrade. Thus it is evident that the tarsus of the hen is the 

 foot that she would rest on the ground if she walked like man; 

 the end opposite the toes is the heel. Some varieties of fowls 

 have five or six toes, but they do not all rest on the ground 

 always. 



Early Swaem op Bees. — A cottager about a quarter of a mile 

 from this town (Evesham) had a swarm of bees on April 20th. 



