THE AMERICAN POULTERER'S COMPANION. 



notoriety, gentlemen singly, and with their 

 wives and daughters and little children, all 

 eagerly threading their way through and by 

 each other, themselves constantly around or 

 stopping to gaze at the coops and cages, intent 

 on seeing every thing, examining a great many 

 birds, and holding spirited conversations at va- 

 rious points and angles of each of the great halls 

 where the chickens were congregated ; and not 

 once only, but repeatedly, day after day. during 

 the show, did we see some of the same individ- 

 uals, groups, and families. 



"Now this means something. People would 

 not congregate at this inclement season, from 

 fifty to five hundred miles distant to witness 

 a 'chicken show' in New York, unless there 

 was ' something in it.' There is something in it. 

 There is a study in it ; a subject for investiga- 

 tion ; a delightful contemplation in natural his- 

 tory, to speculate upon the almost numberless 

 varieties that are produced, and their beautiful, 

 harmonious arrangement of plumage, shape, 

 and all the wonderful qualities they possess. 

 They are a thing to love, to interest young 

 minds, and old ones too, who have enough of 

 the natural left in their artificial thoughts to 

 appreciate any thing. They are among the 

 things that make country life interesting, and 

 attach people to home, and make it pleasanter 

 to them than all the world beside. It shows, 

 too, that the world is growing better in domes- 

 tic feeling and home attachment that litfle 

 things are worth looking after, and although of 

 no great magnitude, that one had better feel 

 interested in a chicken, goose, duck, or pigeon, 

 than not be interested at all and children and 

 young minds, if not amused by innocent things, 

 will surely become interested in vicious ones. 



"To breed a good chicken, duck, goose, or 

 turkey a good animal of any kind requires 

 thought, skill, observation, study, and genius. 

 Xot so much either, perhaps, as to be a finished 



sculptor or painter; but breeding perfect models in 

 form, grace, and plumage, is an accomplishment 

 in the fine arts, as well as to perpetuate their 

 similitudes in marble, or fix them on canvas." 



The following remarks upon fowls in general 

 we find in the New York Journal : "Fashion 

 is very eccentric in the different forms it takes, 

 and often breaks out in unlooked-for ways and 

 upon unthought of subjects : and in nothing has 

 it been more violent or more absolute than in 

 poultry. Politics, metaphysics, religion, stocks, 

 have been in many places banished from every 

 circle for more edifying and profitable discus- 

 sions upon the relative merits of Shanghais or 

 Cochin Chinas. Country gentlemen have taken 

 to experimenting on various breeds, and a vig- 

 orous speculation is often carried on upon Fowl 

 Exchange, equaling, if not excelling, the interest 

 and excitement at the Board upon the fluctua- 

 tions of undiscoverable mining and coal com- 

 panies that are blessed with names above their 

 'local habitations' being beyond the power of 

 man to discover. In Wall Street, where pups 

 and mice, rabbits, birds, candies, fruits, big Irish, 

 men with little mock-watches, jujube-paste, pop 

 corn, cutlery, things to eat, to wear, to look at, 

 and to put to no use or ornament whatever in 

 Wall Street, where, upon every step and curb- 

 stone, these things assemble, prominent among 

 all are Cochins, Chittagongs, Malays, Spanish. 

 Shanghais, Dorkings, Rumpkins, Frizzled, Ban- 

 tams, and innumerable others, where shrill and 

 loud Growings mingle with the chink of gold, 

 and the incessant jargon of bargain and sale. 

 And no more interesting feature does the busy 

 mart present, judging from the admiring crowd, 

 who are gathered continually around them. 

 The sales of these fancy birds in this street 

 amount daily to a large number. They bring 

 extraordinary high prices, and there are doubt- 

 less many shrewd breeders who skillfully keep 

 up the passion, thereby reaping large profits." 



