240 ECHOES OF OLD COUNTY LIFE. 



localities. Spanish have been neglected of late, but 

 they are excellent for stable-yards and about suburbs, 

 where they pick up a living. They were once highly 

 fancied for their large eggs and delicate flesh, but they 

 never sit. White Leghorns, with their beautiful scarlet 

 combs and wattles and yellow legs, 'appear to great 

 advantage when there is a grass run, but look grimy 

 where the black Spanish thrive. The game bantam and 

 Pekin bantams are charming creatures. Yokohamas 

 are purely ornamental, but the little Japanese silkies are 

 valuable for sitting on pheasants' or partridges* eggs on 

 account of their light weight. Of the French kinds the 

 Crevecoeurs, Houdans, and La Fleche are the birds 

 Avhich produce the famous capons and poulardes for the 

 Paris market. The La Fleche variety has been tried in 

 England, but mostly without success. They • require 

 care, I believe, and therefore thrive best among a 

 peasant proprietary. 



The Prebendal Farm was as noted for the geese I 

 reared upon it as, I think I may say without conceit, it 

 was celebrated for its ducks and fowls. At Birmingham 

 in 1883 I showed a goose weighing 34 lbs., and at the 

 Amsterdam Exhibition a gander weighing 33 lbs. and a 

 goose 32 lbs., or of quite double the size of what would 

 be deemed a very fine goose in any market. I intro- 

 duced with success various foreign species of ducks — 

 the Pekins with their deep orange-coloured bills and 

 golden white plumage, hardy in nature and rapid in 

 growth, the Cayuga, from the State of New York, the 

 perfection of a winter duck, a prolific layer of eggs, of a 

 lar^e size and weight when mature, a superb black 



