544 



The Illustrated Book of Poultry. 



" Its invention," he says, " occurred in this wise. Being obhged, for exhibition purposes, to 

 wash and trim my birds' faces pretty often, which entailed the time and expense of a boy or other 

 assistant, who not only witnessed all that took place, exporting all my little secrets to quarters they 

 were never intended to reach, but whose interest in the performance would often make him forj'et 

 he was holding a living thing, till a sudden flap and kick gave notice of freedom, and off the bird 

 went, to be re-caught before the operation could be finished ; I found all this a great annoyance 

 and loss of time, and determined, if possible, to stop it. I then tried the bird in my lap, with the 

 breast-bone between my knees and the legs down between my own ; but this at first was an utter 

 failure, for ofi" it went at a bound, upsetting all my Httle apparatus of cups, basins, sponges, &c. I 

 thought that was not mucli improvement, and would not do ; so I re-caught the young gentleman 

 and quietly put him back as before, but this time passing my handkerchief over his back and 



Fig- 79- 



Fig. 80.' 



round my own thighs, tying the two ends underneath. This was a perfect success ; the bird was 

 comfortable, and never once evinced a desire to move ; and all went on swimmingly until his toilet 

 was just completed, and only wanted the finishing touch of the pozvder-piiff, which I had left' out of 

 reach ; when my attempt to obtain it proved with some force that I was as helpless as the bird, 

 both of us being bound together. 



" Thus I was led to invent what I called a cock-saddle, of which a side vie.v with the bird on it 

 is shown in Fig. 79, and a plan in Fig, 80. It is simply made as follows :-^Take a piece of inch 

 deal, five inches wide and about two feet long. About the middle of each edge cut with a saw at 

 right angles, to the depth of one inch and a half; and five inches from this direct the saw diagonally 

 to the bottom of your preceding cuts, thus taking out of each edge the triangular notches A B 

 in Fig. 80, which are for the bird's legs to hang down in, similar to a saddle without stirrups. 

 Immediately behind the rectangular cuts, and entirely across the board, nail an oval pad — 

 horsehair in leather or calico will do — about three inches in height, four or five inches in width, and 



