FOWLS. 



Mortimer— Game Fowl— Spanish— Dorking— Cochin-China— Cross- 

 bred— Mr. Booth of Warlaby — Bantams— French Plan of getting 

 extra Eggs— Geese — Turkeys— Care required in nursing the 

 young Brood— Plan in the Western Isles— Crusoe-like Resources 

 — Ducks : Aylesbury, Eouen, East Indian— Common Wild-Duck 

 — Carrion Crows : Necessity of destroying— Gravel Walks — 

 Tough Poultry — Henhouse and Nests — Broken Legs — Sur- 

 gery, &c. 



"The countryman's farm or habitation," wrote 

 Mortimer, " cannot be said to be completely stored 

 or stocked without fowl as well as beast, which yield 

 a considerable advantage by their eggs, brood, body, 

 and feathers. Any poor cottager that lives by the 

 highway-side may keep them, they being able to 

 shift for themselves the greatest part of the year by 

 their feeding on insects, corn, or anything almost 

 that is edible by any other sort of animal ; and there- 

 fore they are kept to great advantage at barn-doors, 

 or other places where corn or straw is scattered. As 

 for cocks and hens, I shall not enter into a descrip- 

 tion of the several sorts of them, only advise you to 

 choose those that are the best breeders and the best 

 layers ; but no sort will be good for either if they be 

 kept too fat. The best age to set a hen for chickens 

 is from two years old to five, and the best month to 



