Methods of Giving Cayenne. 85 



alone. The leading idea throughout is to cultivate to its extreme development the strongest native 

 property, and, in the instances to which we refer, something else is that native property, not colour. 

 True, they are sometimes "fed," but the machinery for assimilating and depositing is not there, and 

 they can do so little that they are just as far behind in the colour race at the finish as they were at 

 the start. Some people consider they ought to colour, and that it is very wicked of them not to do 

 so when so much good stuff has been given them ; but we cannot turn Nature out of her course, 

 even to oblige the ignorance which affirms that a bird without the necessary machinery can, by 

 means of the capsicum, be turned into one which has it. When will such ignorance learn to 

 comprehend the simple physiological fact, that the difference lies between an economy which can 

 grasp and appropriate, and one which can not any more than the Ethiopian can change his skin 

 or the leopard his spots } We have heard the question asked with wonder and amazement, as if it 

 were a mystery past human comprehension. Why is it that in the same nest, all fed on the same diet, 

 one bird out of three or four will sometimes be found to show no colour 1 Why? simply because the 

 machinery is defective, and the bird would have exhibited the same deficiency and in precisely the 

 same degree on whatever feed. Viewed in this light, colour is nothing more than the manifestation 

 of certain physiological functions which we can search for and test by the use of particular food. 

 The deposition of colour is the result of possessing these functions and having them in healthy 

 working order, and by supplying food from which colour can be secreted, we ascertain what birds 

 have and what have not the capacity of doing that, the manifestation of which constitutes their 

 distinctive character in a fancier's eye; and the capsicum, instead of being the paint which has to 

 hide all defects, the cloak to cover a multitude of sins, really becomes the most reliable guide we 

 have, indicating the character of the birds submitted to its test, and showing pretty clearly the 

 direction in which we should look in selecting breeding stock likely to carry out to a practical issue 

 the theory of like producing like. 



We take our representative bird, then, to illustrate the business of moulting, and we note, first, 

 that we put it on " feed " thus early at the age of seven or eight weeks, because it is necessary that 

 the colour process should be commenced while the feathers are yet in embryo. And what is "feed ?" 

 We have no doubt that half-a-dozen breeders would give as many different recipes, but the active 

 agent in all of them would be cayenne pepper, which can be mixed with chopped egg and sweet 

 biscuit, or crumbs, or any of the soft food compositions which birds are fond of. Or it may be 

 furnished in the form of "cake," in which eggs, flour, and sugar, or any similar sponge-cake 

 foundation, is made the medium of holding a quantity of pepper in the proportion of almost bulk 

 for bulk. That there are other foods in use, or adjuncts to the ordinary cayenne food, we know; 

 and the Fancy still has its little secrets which may or may not be of value, that are likely to remain 

 secrets. This keep-what-you-have-and-get-all-you-can disposition is not found in a true fancier, 

 and when evidences of its presence crop up to the surface they generally indicate an auriferous 

 formation. It may stimulate emulation, of a kind, to measure off its results with a rule on 

 which the chief marks are 203., los., 5s., at short intervals, but such emulation never gives 

 anything to the world except for value received. The thoughtful breeder will have to investi- 

 gate the relation between cause and effect for himself. Great discoveries have been made by 

 chance, but research tells in the long-run and is the source of pleasure which can neither be 

 bought nor sold. 



The present system of feeding may be yet only in its infancy, but the rule seems to be to get 

 the brightest pepper, and to get the birds to eat as much of it as possible ; both of which things 

 can be overdone. It has not yet been conclusively proved that the brightest or reddest 

 cayenne produces the best results, .or whether the seed or the pod plays the most prominent 



