THE SMOOTH-LEGGED BANTAM. 321 



for its own sake will not be justified in arriving at hasty con- 

 clusions from such information. 



We are at once struck with surprise at the impudence of 

 the Sebright Bantams. Oh, the -consequential little atom ! 

 That such a contemptible minikin as that should have the as- 

 surance to parade his insignificant person in the presence of 

 great ladies, the female members of families of weight and 

 substance, before the Misses, and still worse, the Mistresses 

 Dorking, Cochin-China, and Malay, to presume to show marked 



attention, nay even, I declare ! to . Well, there is no 



knowing to what lengths impudence will go, so long as Ban- 

 tams survive extermination. 



Here is a little whipper-snapper ! Pretty, certainly, and 

 smart, but shamefully forward in his ways. His coat is of a 

 rich brownish yellow ; almost every feather is' edged with a 

 border of a darker hue, approaching to black. His neat slim 

 legs are of a light dull lead-colour ; his ample tail, from which 

 the sickle feathers are absent, is carried well over his back. His 

 dependent wings nearly touch the ground. He is as upright 

 as the stiffest drill-serjeant, or more so, for he appears now and 

 then as if he would fall backwards, like a horse that over-rears 

 himself. His full rose comb and deep depending wattles are 

 plump and red : but their disproportionate size affords a most 

 unfortunate hold for the beak of his adversary : but he cares 

 not for that ; a little glory is worth a good deal of pecking and 

 pinching, and it is not a slight punishment, nor a merely oc- 

 casional infliction of it, that will make him give in. The great 

 Hens, too, that look down upon him, and over him, think pro- 

 per to do battle with him on a first introduction, though they 

 afterwards find out that they might as well have received him 

 in a more feminine style : 



" For Hens, like Women, born to be controlled, 

 Stoop to the forward and the bold." 



