FANCIERS' JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 



199 



and as he breeds them he will find some of the young that 

 have colored heads and tails, but no colored flights. What 

 is he to think of these? Why, call them Moore Heads, or 

 Moore Caps, and enter them for premiums in those classes, 

 as other men do. The name for such in Germany is the 

 Bearded Pigeon, but they have been called in this country 

 German Nuns. He will also have some of the young that 

 will have the colored head only, the rest of the body being 

 white; these are called in Germany the Death's Head. 

 Then, again, some of the young will have well-marked tails 

 and wings; but the color of the head, instead of forming a 

 bib on the neck, will stop at a line even with the eye, so 

 that the top of the head is the part colored; and such birds 

 were called by the ancient fanciers Helmets, and by the 

 moderns Snells, more especially if the flights should also be 

 white; therefore, to be a good Snell is to be an indifferent 

 Nun — that is, a Nun that has lost all the black except that 

 of the tail and the little on the top of the head, is called a 

 Snell or Helmet in these days. 



These Snells have their admirers, and they have been bred 

 as a separate variety for many years. They are of all colors, 

 and are both plain-headed and capped. An enthusiastic 

 fancier imported a pair of Helmets, at considerable cost, in 

 the days when such importations were rare. Upon asking 

 him how he liked his Helmets, the answer came, "They are 



nothing but d 'd yellow-headed Snells." So much for a 



name. 



When carefully bred the Snell is a pretty toy for young 

 fanciers to trifle over, but I do not think it is worth perpetu- 

 ating as a variety. For the benefit of those who may like 

 it, I subjoin the following points : 



1. Coloring, white with black tail and scalp, the black of 

 the scalp covering the head above a line drawn from the 

 corners of the beak through the centre of the eyes. 



2. Eyes, pearl. 



3. Feet, clean and red. 



4. Colors, black, blue, red, and yellow. 



The plain-headed are preferable, as presenting most dis- 

 tinctive marks from the Nuns. The upper half of the beak 

 partakes of the color next it on the head, and is darker than 

 the lower half. 



When the Nun or Snell ran nearly out — that is, had no 



black except the tail and a spot on the head at the insertion 



of the beak — the bird was called a Spot, which name at last 



came to designate a bird that had lost all black color except 



the spot on its head, so that now when wc hear a Spot spoken 



of we can imagine to ourselves a washed-out Nun, perfectly 



white, except the spot on the head at the base of the beak, 



which gives to the bird its name according to the color, as 



Yellow Spot, Red Spot, &c. There is also a White Spot 



connected with Priests in an analogous manner. Now, some 



philosopher may say this mode of reasoning is all wrong ; 



that the Spot was the original of the Helmets and Nuns ; that 



a descendent of the Spot becoming impure by the addition 



of more color to the head and tail, becomes a Helmet, and 



with still more color in the head, wings, and tail, becomes a 



Nun. Well, suppose the reasoning from this end of the 



problem to be true, it but proves the interdependence of 



these strains of pigeons which are dignified with the names 



of varieties. 



Dr. W. P. Morgan. 

 Baltimore, Mb. 



%Umt %\\\tm\m% awl guwuging. 



B@f A Scranton paper, in giving an account of a shoot- 

 ing affray, says the wounded man is expected to recover, as 

 the pistol ball lodged in his dinner pail. 



jggg" " Do you think," asked Mrs. Pepper, " that a little 

 temper is a bad thing in a woman?" "Certainly not," 

 responded her gallant husband, " it is a good thing, and she 

 ought never to lose it." 



B@p G. T. Hollingsworth, Utica, New York, killed a 

 Light Brahma hen November 7th, that weighed when 

 dressed, 11£ pounds. She was one of a trio purchased in 

 Canada. 



8@" An old farmer in New Hampshire recently killed a 

 pig, and being asked how much it weighed, replied that it 

 did not weigh as much as he expected, and he did not expect 

 it would. 



CgST" It is stated that three ounces of carbolic acid put into 

 twelve quarts of lime water or white-wash, and brushed over 

 the inside of the hen-house, there will soon be an end of in- 

 sect life within those doors. Try it. 



jggg- 10,000 worn-out horses and mules are annually 

 consumed for food in the city of Paris. In the year 1861 

 less than 1000 supplied the horse-meat market. The appetite 

 for this dainty food seems to grow by what it feeds on. 



8@" The English Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 

 to Animals has offered premiums to the amount of £400 for 

 improvements in the means of conveying cattle, and in- 

 ducing railway companies to adopt them. 



ftS!?" The Danbury News says a horse ran away on Lib- 

 erty street, on Saturday afternoon, and a man on the side- 

 walk, with a wonderful presence of mind, threw his hat at 

 the animal, screamed fire, and immediately jumped over a 

 fence and disappeared in a cellar-way. 



{ji|g~ It isn't always best to call things by their right 

 names. A voung gentleman called a coach-dog a Dalmatian 

 hound, and was informed by his fiance that if he could not 

 refrain from profanity in her presence they must henceforth 

 be strangers. 



g@f A Bennington girl, whose domestic nature is 

 equal to her natural simplicity, was invited by-an advent 

 exhorter to join his sect, get her white robe ready, and pre- 

 pare to ascend. " I can't," the maiden replied, " father and 

 mother are going, and somebody must stay and see to the 

 cattle." 



jggg?- An Iowa girl of nineteen summers has, with her 

 own hands, during the past season, raised 1000 bushels of 

 corn, 500 heads of cabbage, 100 bushels of onions, and cal- 

 culates on netting $500. Some impecunious and lazy eastern 

 youth, who has only been able to raise a feeble moustache 

 during his life, will probably "go west," and marry this 

 amazing heroine. 



fi@= The annual meeting of the breeders of short-horn 

 cattle, was held in Cincinnati last week, and various 

 questions concerning breeding were discussed. In a discus- 

 sion as to whether white, roan, or red cattle were best in the 

 quality of their flesh, most of the breeders favored white and 

 roan. Mr. Christie, of Canada, asserted that, judging from 

 observations during thirty years' experience, the yellow-reds 

 were emphatically the best. Dense reds, he said, were not 

 of the original stock. 



