jt8 The Illustrated Book of Pocltry. 



of the many varieties whicli await his choice. We say one or two advisedly ; for to attempt at first 

 to keep many is to fail almost of necessity. Each variety demands not only judgment and care 

 but to some extent a trained eye. It will be found, in fact, that one variety spoils or biasses the 

 eye in judging another of a very different character ; and though long experience and the constant 

 sight of birds will to some extent correct this, as is the case with a few large breeders and judges, 

 we have heard one of the best judges in England say that he could never judge a Game class to 

 his satisfaction if compelled to take it immediately after judging Dorkings. By attempting more 

 than one or two varieties, also, all the practical difficulties of breeding, hatching, rearing, and 

 selecting, are increased tremendously, and what might be a pleasure becomes really a painful 

 anxiety, burdensome alike to mind and body. Even of the great breeders, who to a fair extent 

 have succeeded in all the varieties they keep, scarcely any have succeeded in keeping a covviiauding 

 position as regards more than one or two, and this lesson should be well regarded by the mere 

 amateur. 



Well, our pupil having caught the " hen-fever " with more or less severity, his first and most 

 natural idea, if in easy pecuniary circumstances, is to purchase the first-prize cock and pair of hens 

 at some good show, and pen them up for breeding stock. We wish at once to say emphatically 

 that tliis is not the way to begin, and that it will very seldom afiswer. Very rarely indeed will these 

 birds be properly adapted for breeding together, and their progeny will therefore, in most cases, 

 be mere trash from a fancier's point of view. It is just possible the birds themselves, if claimed at 

 a leading show, may be really the pick of the year ; and, in that case, so long as the purchaser can 

 keep them in good condition, he may win the remaining prizes, and realise the picture we jiave 

 drawn of carrying all before him for a few months. But if he thinks this is any real credit to him 

 he is much mistaken. Every breeder in the fancy knows where he got his fowls from, and that 

 money alone has obtained him his dearly-purchased triumphs ; while the risks his precious birds 

 run of dying or losing their fine condition through his ignorance how to treat them, or from 

 overshowing, is very great. Supposing all this survived, and the fowls safely bred from, 

 disappointment is almost sure to ensue, for the reason we have already stated, that they are very 

 seldom such as should be mated ; and if the tyro should be so rash as to advertise and sell eggs 

 from his treasures, very probably the autumn brings him sundry indignant letters, broadly hinting 

 that the eggs he supplied must have been the produce of rubbish kept for the purpose of supplying 

 his customers, so far are they from what they ought to be. It may happen even worse, that the 

 specimens purchased are not of any special value, and that even the poor satisfaction of winning 

 with them again is denied him : the competition may have been very poor (of which fact he is 

 unable to judge), and hence he may have been deceived as to their value ; or a bad light may have 

 misled the judge: in either case he is "done," and in the first bitterness of his disappointment 

 very likely meditates retiring from the fancy altogether, a sadder and a wiser man. These are no 

 mere fancy sketches ; they are only what we have actually seen again and again. 



We by no means wish to affirm that the best birds are never to be purchased at high prices. 

 Only very lately we ourselves offered twenty guineas for a cockerel as he ran in the yard, which 

 up to that time had never won a first prize. But it is not the beginner who should do this. In our 

 case the young bird belonged to a breed we had studied for years, and he accordingly justified our 

 estimate even as an exhibition specimen, by winning every prize and cup of value through the 

 whole season. It is, however, not very often that experienced breeders will give such prices, and 

 when Ihey do it is for one of two reasons ; either they have a reputation to keep up, and prefer to 

 buy a bird which they see would otherwise beat their own ; or— and this is the reason in most cases 

 — they know the pedigree well, and what it will breed with their own stock, and are willing to pay 



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