222 RECORDS OF OLD TIMES 



black, and when first brought to England were 

 large, heavy birds. I was the original importer, 

 and exhibited them for the first time at the Crystal 

 Palace, as also Pekin ducks. With regard to geese 

 I prefer the grey Toulouse, and have exhibited 

 them with great success at many shows. I have 

 won the first prize at Birmingham with a gander 

 weighing 2)1 '^s., and a goose weighing 32 lbs. 

 The white Embden are beautiful gees^j, but they 

 scarcely equal the Toulouse in weight. These 

 cross with the latter admirably. They have one 

 great peculiarity, viz., that the ganders of this cross 

 are almost invariably pure white, whilst the geese are 

 pied or mottled. As to turkeys, the old black Nor- 

 folk has almost entirely given way to the bronze 

 Cambridgeshire. I once had a present made me by 

 my old and valued friend. General Hassard, of 

 pigeon fame, both as a breeder and a judge, who, 

 whilst he was quartered with his regiment in Canada, 

 bought a wonderfully fine bronze wild cock turkey 

 or ' gobbler ' in Toronto, which had been brought 

 into the city under the arms of a Red Indian, caught 

 alive wild in the woods. He was, without excep- 

 tion, the handsomest and finest turkey ever seen in 

 England ; I won several prizes with him, and he 

 scaled 40 lbs. He is, I believe, the progenitor of 

 nearly all the best herds of bronze turkeys at our 

 show-yards. The General is a great authority on 

 prize poultry, and in the early days of the poultry 

 mania bred some of our best buff Cochins. 

 Amongst his brother officers in his artillery regiment 



