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CHAPTER XXIX. 



DANTAMS (EXCEPT GAME). 



The diminutive breeds denominated Bantams, from some totally erroneous supposition that they 

 had been derived from the place bearing that name, have always been popular amongst poultry- 

 keepers, and the space before their pens is nearly always thronged at a good show. Many of them 

 have their good points as layers, and for the food they cost are by no means unprofitable poultry ; 

 but all have one conspicuous merit at least — they can be kept in small places, and in neighbour- 

 hoods where no large variety of fowls could be kept at all. They are content with small space as 

 well as small meals ; and even their little crow does not annoy neighbours who would quickly 

 repeat the teapot storm of the celebrated " great peacock case," did the amateur keep a sonorous 

 rooster of the orthodox persuasions. Nearly all of them — even the Game — are naturally tame and 

 familiar in disposition ; and for all such reasons and more, these little minnikin fowls afford an 

 amount of happiness it is difficult to estimate, and place the highest pleasures of poultry-keeping 

 within the reach of hundreds who otherwise must go without them altogether. Many a lady, tired 

 of having nothing to pet but a tom-cat, has wondered longingly whether she might not keep a 

 few fowls ; but looking at her garden with regretful eyes, has decided that half of it would be 

 needed, and that she could not spare that ; when the happy thought has crossed her mind, "Why not 

 keep Bantams >" A little space — just that strip which can so easily be spared — will content ^/u-m ; 

 and as to crowing, who in the world would mind the voice of a little fellow no bigger than a 

 pigeon .' She is made happy ; and even the tom-cat, ousted at first from his olden place, but who 

 has p.-ovided for him a never-ending subject of interest in the perpetually intense speculation as 

 to the possibility of some peculiarly tiny chicken coming some day through to the wrong side of 

 the wire — even he is made happy too. Decidedly Bantams have their place in the world. 



Even more than this may be said for them. They eat next to nothing, and may often be 

 kept going entirely on bread-crumbs and such like rejectamenta from a small household ; while we 

 have already remarked that some of them are really good layers. And if their eggs are small — 

 well, most delicious things are small. We have often wondered why peas were not made as large 

 as beans ; but they are very good as peas nevertheless, and we could ill spare them. And Bantams 

 lay delicious, delicate, fairy eggs, to be tenderly ransacked by fairy fingers with a fairy spoon ; or, 

 if there be a very little child, who so delighted as she either to eat herself, or to see her mother 

 eat, the little egg from "her little hen.'" We have heard, too, of delicate invalids, who on "bad 

 days" could touch nothing but those same Bantam eggs laid by the pet hen — the first morsel that 

 had passed the thin white lips when the life and strength so nearly lost began to come struggling 

 back, and still relished at times when everything else was turned from with disgust — brought in on 

 bright green moss, to be welcomed with a smile, and cooked there and then (as Bantam eggs 

 should be), by simply pouring boiling water upon them in sight of the invalid, so as to awaken 

 interest and appetite together. Yes, they have even their uses. Pretty, interesting, useful, lovable — ■ 

 we pity the hard-headed man who can't admire a Bantam. What if the airs of the little rooster do 



