464 The Illustrated Boor of Poultry. 



" The ear-lobes being one of the prhicipal points in this breed, great care is necessary to get 

 and keep them perfectly white. Of course you cannot expect to get good lobes unless the bird 

 is well bred, but the very best lobes will be soon spoiled by neglect, that is, by allowing the bird 

 full liberty in all weathers. The sun, cold cutting winds, or frost will all tend to discolour or shrivel 

 up the lobe. On the other hand, by keeping a bird up in a sheltered pen, an indifferent lobe can 

 be greatly improved. 



" In selecting birds for exhibition, judgment and experience are required. If I had two cocks ; 

 one with very good lobes, plumage, and style, but with an indijfcrent comb, and one with good comb 

 and lobes, but inferior plumage and style, I should select the former. Nothing can compensate 

 for any one point being very bad ; but, on the other hand, a perfect bird is very rare (I have never 

 seen one to come up to my idea of perfection), and those must be chosen which show the greatest 

 general excellence, and look best in a pen. 



" The legs of all the birds in a pen must of course match in colour, and if the pen consist of 

 two hens, comb, size, &c., in the pair must be as near alike as possible. The-Iobes, comb, legs, 

 and plumage, if dirty, must be carefully washed, and the birds fed on some soft food before sending 

 off to a show. Good-sized round baskets, well lined with calico or other material, are requisite : the 

 plumage is often spoiled by the baskets being too small or square. In conclusion, I would say to 

 beginners, Do not expect to carry everything before you at the commencement, and do not be 

 disappointed or disgusted at non-success. Great judgment, experience, patience, and perseverance, 

 are the elements of, and the lack of either fatal to, success." 



A difference of opinion will not fail to be observed between Mr. Hutton and Mr. Cambridge 

 on the question of the proper shape for Black Bantams, one preferring the identical "gamey " style 

 which the other dislikes. This difference is undoubtedly real, and the point is one on which, like 

 many others, various opinions may be legitimately held ; but we must also remark that it is not 

 so great as might at first sight appear. What Mr. Hutton chiefly means to object to are evidently 

 the long leg and whip-tail of the Game. What Mr. Cambridge chiefly dislikes is the wing pointed 

 nearly to the ground, and an immense fanned tail carried upright or over the back. We have seen 

 birds which we know to have been greatly admired by both breeders ; and the type presented by 

 Mr. Serjeantson's beautiful pair of Black Hamburghs, shown in Plate X, with wings carried as there 

 shown, legs of harmonious medium length, and a sweeping, but not heavy, sickled tail, would 

 certainly meet with the approbation of all parties. For ourselves, we consider this Hamburgh 

 t3'pe in rt// points the most pleasing, and in our view the most correct ; and this opinion does not 

 greatly differ from that of Mr. Hewitt, who has already so kindly given his views on various kindred 

 points of judging as well as in the present case. "A really good Black Bantam," he writes, " should 

 possess, size only excepted, the general characteristics of the Black Hamburgh. This Bantam, 

 however, has its own peculiar pertness and expression of determined familiarity. The calm, reliant 

 courage of the Game Bantam is out of place in the Black one, the latter being the very embodiment 

 of foppery, self-esteem, and an unconquerable desire to make friends at all hazards. Pride and 

 vanity are its marked characters ; and it is this impudence, combined with its natty mincing gait, 

 that causes it to be generally an object of interest to lovers of poultry. A long, well-drooping 

 sickle-feather, as in the Hamburghs, is a most important desideratum. The smaller they are the 

 better (some being shown very small) ; and, again, perfectly white ear-lobes are indispensable to 

 obtain general success. 



" In both Blade, and also Sebright Bantams," Mr. Hewitt adds, "regularity of formation of the 

 combs has scarcely been sufficiently attended to of late years by general breeders. It should be 

 continually borne in mind that breeding from those birds whose combs are 'but little out,' leads 



