390 Tim Illustrated Book op Poultry. 



rarely walk down a large class of Hamburghs without seeing evident signs of this process, while 

 experienced Hamburgh judges might see many more which our untutored eyes would never 

 suspect. These various practices make the task of a conscientious Hamburgh judge one of unusual 

 anxiety and responsibility. It may be thought that we exaggerate : let the following indignant 

 sentences from Mr. Hewitt, received since our own remarks were written, testify that unhappily it 

 is not so. Our only doubt has been whether it was well to mention these things, lest they should 

 suggest to any one expedients he might not otherwise have attempted ; but, as in other matters, 

 we have come to the conclusion that fearless truth is best, and that any such evil which might arise 

 will be more than counterbalanced by the probability of more frequent detection. We trust this 

 may be the case, and hope yet to see the day when some scoundrel shall be lynched if convicted of 

 such practices as we here speak of. Only the other day (March, 1873) a poor woman was punished 

 with hard labour, justly enough, for cruelly cutting off a hen's comb in a mere fit of ill-temper, and 

 we do think the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals might do worse than devote a little 

 special attention to the cases from time to time exposed in the poultry journals of such deliberate 

 barbarity as Mr. Hewitt here describes. 



"Among the many fraudulent practices resorted to by trimmers," he says, "none perhaps are 

 so basely cruel as one of which I have met with many instances ; namely, forcing pins and needles 

 lengthways through the combs, to support them in an upright position. Imagination fails to depict 

 the intensity of suffering thus produced ; but as this abominable cruelty is rarely put in practice 

 until the very eve of the arbitration, it may frequently escape the vigilance of the most practical 

 judge. On the second and subsequent days, however, the intolerable inflammation is noticeable at 

 even the most hasty glance, and I have seen a fowl in its agony bend the head down, raise its foot, 

 as with the intention of relieving the comb by scratching it, stop the movement midway without 

 touching its comb at all, and then tremble like an aspen-leaf. My conviction is that at this stage 

 of injury the comb has become as highly sensitive to pain as the foot of a gouty patient, and that 

 it shrinks as involuntarily from the slightest approach as would a gouty grandfather from the 

 romping advances of his pet grandchild. I have known a Hamburgh, when thus mercilessly 

 treated, scream long before the hand touched it, and when removed from the pen the comb, as also 

 the scalp, proved greatly swollen, and the inflammation proportionately intense. In another case 

 suppuration had ensued, and after the extraction of portions of iivo different pins, fully half a 

 thimbleful of feculent matter exuded from the wound. I cannot find words to characterise my 

 individual opinion of such heartless depravity, so will not attempt it, but I shall certainly continue 

 to disqualify and expose any future cases coming under my observation, regardless of the social 

 position of the owner, or a natural inclination on my part to avoid giving offence to any one. 

 Occasionally the combs of Spanish cocks have been forced upright by a stocking-needle, and thus 

 sent to our exhibitions, but this is at best a bungling remedy, as in a single comb the artifice is far 

 more readily discoverable by an arbitrator than in that of the naturally less transparent double comb 

 of the Hamburghs. In every doubtful case I would suggest to judges a close scrutiny in the hand ; 

 though suspicion will, if carefully examined, be generally aroused by the tainatural brightness and 

 tense character of the skin that ensues a few hours from the time the injury was first inflicted. 



" As regards dyed feathers, it is the wisest course not to publish the various conclusive means 

 of proof available to the arbitrator. In feathers that are dyed whilst naturally remaining in the 

 fowl, a dulness and want of iridescence, when viewed in a side light, usually attracts attention ; but 

 I must confess I have seen many cases in which the feather has been plucked out, ' cleaned up ' by 

 a dyer, and then reinstated, where the quickest eye, in the best of lights, failed to discover the 

 deception, the natural lustre being perfectly restored." 



