4-32 



NE^\^ i-:ngi>anT) farmer. 



Sept. 



THE GUINEA HEN. 



The plumage of this bh-cl is singularly beauti- ' 

 ful, being spangled over with an infinity of uliite 

 spots on a black ground, shaded with grey and 

 brown. The spots vary from the size of a pea to 

 extreme minuteness. Occasionally the black and 

 white change places, causing the bird to appear 

 as if covered with a net-work of lace. 



Of all known birds, this, perhaps, is the most 

 prolific of eggs. Week after week, and month af- 

 ter month, see little or no intermission of the daily 

 deposit. 



A Bantam hen is the best mother, being lighter, 

 and less likely to injure the eggs, by treading on 

 them, than a full-sized fowl. She will well cover 

 nine eggs, and incubation will last about a month. 

 The young are excessively pretty. When first 

 hatched, they are so strong and active, as to ap- 

 pear not to require the attention really necessary 

 to rear them. Almost as soon as they are dry 

 from the moisture of the egg, they will peck each 

 other's toes, as if supposing them to be worms, 

 will scramble with each other for a crumb of 

 bread, and will domineer over any little Bantam, 

 or chicken, that may have been brought off in the 

 same clutch with themselves. No one, who did 

 not know, would guess from their appearance, of 

 what species of bird they were the offspring. Their 



orange-red bills and legs, and the dark. Zebra- 

 like stripes with which they are regularly marked 

 from head to tail, bear no traces of the speckled 

 plumage of their parents. 



"When designed for the table, they must be 

 killed before coming to maturity, as the flesh then 

 becomes tough and dry. 



By their continual clamor and watchful nature, 

 they are useful in protecting the other poultry 

 from the hovering hawks. 



Curious Alleged ])iscovery in Floricul- 

 ture. — It is said that Mayor Tiemann, at his paint 

 factory in Manhattanville, has accidentally made 

 a discovery which threatens to revolutionize flor- 

 iculture. One of the factory hands having thrown 

 some liquid green paint of a particular kind on a 

 flower-bed occupied by white anemones, the flow- 

 ers have since made their appearance with petals 

 as green as grass. The paint had in it a peculiar 

 and very penetrating chemical mixture, which Mr. 

 Tiemann has since applied with other colors, to 

 other plants, annual, biennial, and of the shrub 

 kind — the result being invariably that the flowers 

 so watered took the hue of the liquid deposited at 

 their roots. By commencing experiments early 

 next year, during seedtime, and applying difl"erent 

 colors, wo shall no doubt soon be enabled to "paint 

 the lily," which was Solomon's ambition. — N. Y. 

 Tribune. 



