PREFACE 



TO THE 



FIRST AND SECOND EDITIONS. 



THE small work which I present to the reader, for his use 

 and information, I may presume to style truly practical, 

 since I have, throughout my life, been a breeder and 

 keeper, and also an amateur of domestic poultry, pigeons, 

 and rabbits ; at some periods, upon rather a considerable 

 scale ; and have, for many years together, kept a register 

 of the results. I have further done that which, I believe, 

 no other man has taken the pains to do, kept a regular 

 stud book for those breeders, scarcely one of which was 

 so poor as to be without a name ; and Regulus, Samson, 

 Flea-catcher, Selima, Moreau, Isaac, and Tom Paine, shine 

 with peculiar lustre on my poultry and pigeon list ; whilst 

 Corney Butter-cup, Adam, Beelzebub, Lucifer, Carolina, 

 Hecuba, make a figure equally splendid and equally useful, 

 among the rabbits. I think Montaigne says somewhere, 

 that if a man would sit and describe that which he has 

 known practically, upon almost any subject, he could 

 scarcely fail of being useful. Just so far my ambition 

 extends. Nor is the world entirely without need of advice 

 on this subject, notwithstanding its antiquity, and the mul- 

 titude of counsellors. Of this fact I had a signal proof, in 

 a visit a few years since to an honourable baronet in the 

 west, Sir Lawrence Park, in whose extensive park, and most 

 convenient, yards and offices, and upon a soil excellently, 

 adapted, I found a sufficiency of poultry could not be 

 raised for the family use ; in consequence of which, a very 

 considerable annual expense was incurred at a neighbouring 

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