The Norwich Fancy. 285 



estimation by a great many fanciers, and more especially by 

 ladies and amateurs, their gorgeous and brilliant plumage being 

 their principal attraction; but now that it has become so 

 extensively known that those vivid hues can be readily procured 

 simply by administering cayenne pepper, mixed with egg and 

 biscuits, and given as food during the period of moulting, it 

 is a question whether this knowledge will not dispel the fas- 

 cination that has hitherto hung around these birds. That it 

 will very materially affect their value commercially I think 

 there can be no shadow of a doubt. Meanwhile, I believe 

 that the best bred birds will reap the greatest advantage 

 from this novel regime, and that they will continue in a pro- 

 portionate degree, according to breeding, to bear the palm over 

 all their competitors of a more lowly origin, but it is just 

 possible that I may be wrong in my assumption. However, 

 apart from this, there can be little doubt now that, even prior to 

 the discovery of this ingenious method of using cayenne, many 

 of the most highly coloured specimens exhibited owed in a great 

 measure their gaudy glistening colours to some particular mode 

 of feeding, for it seems to have been long known to the princi- 

 pal breeders in Norwich that the exterior grandeur of these 

 birds could be materially improved by giving them certain 

 ingredients, mixed with their food and otherwise, during the 

 moulting season, and numerous and various have been the 

 devices resorted to for this purpose. Among other things which 

 have been tried to influence and improve the colour in these 

 birds are : Marigold flowers, cochineal, meadow saffron, annatto, 

 beetroot, carrots, madder, turmeric, mustard seed, &c., but the 

 whole of these ingredients appear to sink into utter insignifi- 

 cance, so far as effect is produced, when compared with the 

 magical results which have been achieved by the use of the 

 cayenne pepper. See chapter on " Moulting " (p. 162). 



In addition to the nostrums already specified, and which 

 are intended for internal use only, some unscrupulous persons 

 have had the temerity to resort to external embellishments as 

 well, and to accomplish their object they have applied such com- 

 pounds as " Judson's Dyes " and similar preparations. Where 

 these artifices have been detected, the perpetrators have been 



