THEGAMEFOWL. 25* 



burg, a very odd-looking Chicken, a Pullet four or five months 

 old. Though very small, weighing now not more than two 

 pounds, (see Portrait,) she has the appearance and characteris- 

 tics of Dr. Bennnett's Wild Indian Game Hen, except the vast 

 difference in size. I was struck with the resemblance. She 

 is firm-fleshed, short- feathered, and almost combless ; and has 

 the most peculiar gait I ever saw. Her pertinacity in sitting 

 is most extraordinary. I will try to send you her portrait. 

 Her mother, no larger than herself, was imported from Calcutta. 

 And, though my Pullet is the result of crossing with an ordi- 

 nary Game Cock, the breed is so strong that she resembles her 

 mother in all respects, and her sire in nothing. You may form 

 some estimate of her fighting blood, when I tell you, that 

 Cocks out of her, by a Booby (the meanest of all gallinaceous 

 athletes) or other Dunghill Fowl, are a full match for our best 

 Game Chickens. 



Is not your " woolly" Hen, identical with the breed termed 

 frizzled, with feathers reversed, like the quills of an angry 

 hedge-hog ? If so, lean easily procure you a husband for her.* 



You wish to be posted-up in Aquatic Birds. I know some- 

 what of these, but probably not so much as yourself. In re- 

 gard to Ducks, they are much more prolific than they usually 

 have credit for ; and, even for Eggs, can be made a profitable 

 bird, if well fed and properly managed. Any common Duck, 

 so treated, if not old, will yield, in a season, one hundred or more 

 large, rich, and delicious Eggs. When they lay, it is daily or 

 nightly ; and, if kept from sitting, which is easily done by 

 changing their nests frequently, they will lay, with little inter- 

 ruption, from February or March until August. But the 

 trouble is, a Duck lays only when Eggs are most abundant, 

 while Hens' Eggs may be procured at all seasons. 



The young of Ducks seldom die of disease ; and if cats and 



* The two varieties are entirely distinct. ED. 

 22 



