Hardiness of Spanish when at Liberty. 339 



friends have looked at this tree and its occupants in the autumn, a little after roosting time, with 

 perfect astonishment. After the first frosty night the whole of the leaves come down, yet the 

 chickens do not change their roosting-place, though there is a shed not more than ten yards from 

 it with perches and boxes, which some of the chickens use when they begin to lay. I may add 

 that the droppings from the birds cause the mulberry to bear the largest berries I ever saw on a 

 tree of the kind. Those that cannot get to the mulberry tree (the part in which it stands being 

 wired off) prefer the hazel pear tree to any other, probably on account of the branches growing 

 more horizontally than those of many other trees. In the winter of 1871-2 fifteen Spanish pullets, 

 with several cockerels, roosted in a very high hazel pear tree, and certainly in the most exposed 

 part of the orchard — indeed, they were blown down by the storms several times during winter — yet 

 they laid more eggs from the first of November to the fifteenth of February than the same number 

 of Brahma and Cochin pullets, ten of which were hatched quite as early. Some of the Brahmas 

 roosted in the same tree with the Spanish, the remainder and the Cochins in the chicken-boxes 

 in which they were reared ; all were in the same orchard, laid in the same nests, and were fed with 

 the same food. 



" One of the objections to Spanish or any other chickens roosting in trees is, that ever after 

 during life they preserve the inclination to roost out, especially if there be trees they can get into. 

 Another objection to Spanish roosting in trees during winter is, that the frost, if very severe, will 

 blacken the tips of the spikes and sometimes the higher part of the comb, especially of the 

 cockerels ; but it must be remembered that even a slight frost will do the same to those that have 

 been shut up in a house, if they are let out early in the morning. Though now many years ago, I 

 well remember going to the mulberry tree when it was freezing very severely one night, and taking 

 three splendid cockerels out of the tree into a building for the night, to keep them from having 

 their combs coloured with frost. The day after the combs of all three turned a livid, unnatural 

 colour; two days after they were quite black, and the wattles nearly the size and shape of goose 

 eggs hanging with the large end down ; and, finally, the combs and wattles of all three gangrened, 

 and the birds had to be killed. There were several other cockerels and a number of pullets left in 

 the tree these three were taken from, and not one of these was the least injured, except that one or 

 two were a little discoloured at the ends of the spikes of the combs. 



" That Spanish are tender when roosting in warm closed-up houses I know ; but give them 

 open, airy roosting-piaccs and a free run, and I firmly believe they are as hardy as any other 

 breed, except Brahmas, and if not made too fat, are subject to fewer diseases than any other 

 variety of fowls. My old birds roost in houses that were built for single horses ; these have rather 

 large doors, which, with the windows, are always left open day and night, except that the doors are 

 closed every night the frost is severe ; at all other times, even in winter, they have nearly as much 

 fresh air as if roosting out. Spanish kept in this way are not tender. Even old birds, up to three 

 years old, with me will go through their moult quite as fast as any variety I know, and lay as well 

 during winter as hens of the same age of any other variety. I know well from experience that the 

 treatment Spanish receive to have their faces in show condition would make any other variety 

 tender to a degree. I should not advise any one to exhibit Spanish that have had their full liberty, 

 without putting them up eight or ten days before the show ; and even Cochins or Brahmas would 

 suffer quite as much as Spanish if exposed to cold after the treatment Spanish generally receive 

 before exhibition : .nay, I firmly believe that other breeds would never bear wha^t Spanish 

 exhibition birds do bear, but if treated in the same way would die of roup, from which disease 

 Spanish is more free than any other variety of lowl. 



" For breeding Spanish, the birds should be put together not later than the first of January ; 



