10 FARMING FOR LADIES. [chap, i. 



Here may be seen a curious collection of 

 white Java Bantams, odd little birds, covered 

 with a sort of hairy feather, but laying, it is 

 said, the richest kind of egg ; which, how- 

 ever, are not a little difficult to be got, for 

 it seems that no sooner is one layed, than the 

 whole tribe, even the hen herself, begin 

 pecking at it until eaten up : yet in this, we 

 imagine, there must be some mistake, or it 

 would be impossible to rear a brood from the 

 parent hen. There are also some of Sir John 

 Sebright's celebrated bantams, with their 

 golden speckled feathers, and other small 

 breeds of a rare description. By way of con- 

 trast, there is an enormously large breed of 

 Cochin China fowls, the cock, although very 

 young, weighing upwards of ten pounds, and 

 the hens very prolific of eggs of superior 

 flavour ; which, although white when layed, 

 become soon afterwards speckled. 



There are likewise various other sorts of 

 fancy breeds — both fowls and pigeons, of a 

 curious description — all under the care of a 

 man especially qualified for such a charge, 

 as perhaps there are few better acquainted 

 with the habits of the feathered tribes. He 



