rOULTRY. 387 



The committee passed it by in unutterable loathing and dis- 

 gust, expressing their decided and unanimous conviction that 

 such bestialities as two-headed, and six-legged, and double-tailed 

 calves, centaurs and cerberuses, multicipital serpents, Joice 

 Ileths and woolly horses, should be frowned down by a discern- 

 ing indignant public sentiment, or turned over to Barnurn. 



" Hence ! of blackest midnight born, 

 In Stygian cave forlorn, 



'Midst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy — 

 Hence ! and in dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell." — Milton. 



Your committee cannot refrain from expressing their great 

 regret that no specimens of the native farm-yard fowl were 

 present at the exhibition. Every thing offered was of the fancy 

 stock, a good deal of which stock is " far-fetched and dear- 

 bought," and not worth the inflated prices which are asked, and 

 not unfrequently paid, for it. Some bold-spoken proverbialist 

 has put forth a saying, that has more truth than beauty in it, 

 about " a fool and his money," etc. Perhaps this is carrying 

 the reproach a little too far; though occasionally an energetic 

 medicine may be needed to cure a violent and obstinate fault. 

 Now, it is well known that, in these latter times, there have 

 been paid to fancy fowl breeders as high as $25, $35, and even 

 $50 the pair for birds of foreign stock. At a sale in England 

 in April last, six Shanghae chickens, three months old, brought 

 $55; a lemon-colored hen brought $77; a lemon-colored cock 

 brought $135 ; and a buff cock, called "Nelson," weighing thir- 

 teen pounds, brought $215, and after the sale a nobleman of- 

 fered $250 for him ! A Spanish hen brought $55, and a cock 

 brought $60. At this sale one hundred and eighty-two lots of 

 birds were sold, and the sales amounted to $3,872.50 ! Should 

 any incredulous Sadducees think that your committee are 

 " drawing the longbow " in these statements, and taxing the 

 credulity of those who may read them a little too heavily, they 

 are referred to the "Cottage Gardener" for April, 1854, 

 whence the above prices were copied. One would half suppose 

 that some of the hen-excited fanciers would, as "honest Iago" 

 said, 



" Drown themselves for the love of a Guinea hen." — Shakspeare. 



