102 THE POULTRY-BOOK. 



" It may be proper here to say, that the profits were more 

 than could generally be obtained, as eggs were very high most 

 of the time ; but taken at the average price of eggs for the last 

 two years, it will be hard to find any person who has real- 

 ized as much from the same number of any other breed of fowls, 

 in the four coldest months of the year." 



THE BANTAM FOWL. 



Richardson says that " the original of the Bantam is the 

 Bankiva fowl, a native of Java, several specimens of which are 

 kept by her Majesty, at Home Park. These are very beautiful, 

 of a perfectly white color, and exceedingly small size, and they 

 exhibit some peculiar traits of habit and disposition, that we 

 cannot overlook. Amongst other strange propensities, the 

 cocks are so fond of sucking the eggs laid by the hen, that they 

 will often drive her from the nest in order to obtain them 

 nay, they have even been known to attack her, tear open the 

 ovarium, and devour its shell-less contents. In order, if possi- 

 ble, to subdue this unnatural propensity, her Majesty's keeper 

 gave the cocks first a hard-boiled and then a marble egg to 

 fight with, taking care, at the same time, to prevent their 

 access either to the hens or to any real eggs. After a few 

 weeks, the birds gave up their unprofitable labor, and, as the 

 keeper had anticipated, wholly abandoned, for the future, 

 attempting the destruction either of the hen or of the actually 

 laid egg. Another strange propensity was exhibited in a pas- 

 sion for sucking each other's blood. This passion chiefly ex- 

 hibited itself when the birds were moulting, when they had 

 been known to peck each other naked, by pulling out the new 

 feathers as they appeared, and squeezing with their beaks the 

 blood from the bulbs at the base. The intelligence of the keeper 



