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FANCIERS' JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 



UtM0 Intwjstfafl and gtmugfofl. 



8@" Carlisle hag a hen that lays eggs with a perfectly 

 black shell. The hen is of the Dark Brahma breed, and 

 has laid nine of these black eggs. 



fl®°* When your pocketbook gets empty, and everybody 

 knows it, you can put all your friends in it and it won't 

 " bulge " out worth a cent. 



fi®" Henry Williams, a boy 16 years of age, was killed a 

 few days ago at Wells, by the accidental discharge of a gun 

 which he was dragging along by the muzzle. 



{jgg^The Spring Exhibition of the Chester County Agri- 

 cultural Society, will be held at West Chester, on the sixth 

 of June — one day only. The premium list has been revised 

 on a liberal scale, agricultural horse-racing being quite 

 prominent, there being no less than five premiums under 

 this head, ranging from $200, $150, and so on down. 



figg™ On Ayjip's banks, contiguous to the Noile, 



King Pharoah's daughter wint to walk a whoile; 

 And peeling off her dhubs to take a schwim, 

 Ban up and down the banks to dry her sckin ; 

 And rushing thro' the rushes thick and thin 

 Discovered the basket that the choild lay in, 

 And.thin and there she croid in accent woild, 

 " Which ay yees ladies owns this choild? 

 It's none o' your own gossoon's you're quick to say ; 

 An' that's the thruth, I've known you many a day; 

 But since we've found him in the bed of roses, 

 By all means let us christen him Moses." 



figjSfNot long since a gentleman found in his hennery a 

 simple-minded soul of the vicinity, who lived without any 

 visible means of support. " What are you doing here', you 

 rascal — stealing my chickens?" "No sir; I thought of 

 doing nothing of the sort." It unfortunately happened that 

 the simple-mined individual wore a high hat of the dimen- 

 sions of a beehive, and the crown thereof was dilapidated to 

 a serious extent. Just as he had put in his denial, the head 

 of a half-grown pullet was seen to protrude from the aperture. 

 " See here," said the gentleman, " how did that chicken get 

 into your hat ? " " Well, sure, your honor," exclaimed the 

 simple-mined individual, with an air of honest surprise 

 and embarrassment, " that is the strangest thing that ever 

 happened to me. I suppose the creature must have crawled 

 up my trowsers' legs." 



|@- Mr. Darwin's "Missing Link."— On the Island 

 of Borneo has been found a certain race of wild creatures, 

 of which kindred varieties have been discovered in the 

 Philippine Islands, in Terra del Fuego, and in South 

 America. They walk unusually, almost erect, and, in that 

 attitude, measure about four feet in height. They construct 

 no habitations, form no families, and scarcely associate to- 

 gether, sleep in caves and trees, feed on snakes and vermin, 

 on ants' eggs, and on each other. They cannot be tamed or 

 forced to any labor, and are hunted and shot among the trees 

 like the great gorilla, of which they are a stunted copy. 

 When captured alive, one finds with surprise, that their un- 

 couth, jabbering sounds are like articulate language. They 

 turn up a human face to gaze at their captors, and the fe- 

 males show instincts of modesty; in fine, these wretched 

 beings are men and women. — Siam Weekly Advertiser. 



8@* A Question for the Postmaster. — A lady of 

 Hibernian extraction, rather tall and gaunt, who supports 

 a husband and several children on a barren ranch at the 

 southern end of tbe county, afforded entertainment for a 

 dozen or more people at the Post Office of one of our West- 

 ern cities. Elbowing her way through the crowd to the 

 window of the stamp clerk, she presented to his vision a 

 live rooster, and demanded what the postage would be on 

 the feathered gentleman to a neighboring station. The 

 clerk, after considerable debate, succeeded in proving to the 

 lady that such articles were not allowed to pass through the 

 Post Office. 



J3@°"A very peculiar specimen of the fox tribe, says the 

 West Chester American Republican, made its appearance 

 recently on the Brandywine and Doe Kun hills. It was 

 pursued from time to time by a pack of thirty trained fox 

 hounds, but every time Beynard was equal to the emergency, 

 and went under the Doe Bun rocks, where he could not be 

 dug out. At the hole where the fox usually went under, 

 there were finally stationed ten dogs, and a party of men. 

 The rest of the pack soon after found his trail, and when 

 they began to run him pretty close, he made for the hole as 

 usual, but seeing the unhealthy look of affairs about home, 

 he turned, and after a long run, took the earth on the farm 

 of Jos. L. Pratt, in Newline, where he was dug out. He 

 proved to be one of the strangest foxes ever seen in that 

 part of the country, having the appearance of a Maltese 

 cat, and is of an entirely different color from the foxes of 

 that section. He was taken to Mr. Clayton's fox kennel, 

 on his farm near Marshalton. 



B@* Wild Goose Shooting. — The season for wild goose 

 shooting on Long Island has commenced. As the birds 

 are very shy, it requires a good deal of skill on the part of 

 the sportsman to come near enough for a shot. The method 

 generally employed, is to obtain from fifteen to twenty wild 

 geese, by "winging " them on their passage north or south 

 — the old-fashioned " stoolers " being regarded as entirely 

 behind the age. These are tamed so that they can be " lined " 

 to stakes, when they are taken to the bars where the wild 

 geese usually stop to feed, and fastened to stakes put down 

 in the sand out of sight, while the gunner conceals himself 

 in a box sunk in the sand, and partially covered by sea- 

 weed or meadow grass. When flocks of wild geese are 

 passing, these partially tamed ones will call them, and 

 usually they will fly near by, or alight, when the gunner 

 rises and shoots. Experts have killed as many as twenty- 

 five at a shot. The flocks of tame geese are regarded as 

 very valuable. 



8@" Teaching a Bullfinch to Pipe. — A bird organ 

 can be had at any musical-instrument shop. The bird must 

 be taken in hand when very young, and before he has had 

 an opportunity of learning any other song. Confine him in 

 a dark closet, or prevent him from having his attention dis- 

 tracted by outward objects, by covering his cage with a 

 cloth. Then give him his lessons early in the morning on 

 an empty stomach, and reward a chirp with a grain of 

 hempseed. After morning lessons give him his breakfast, 

 and eat your own in the exercise of great faith. Always 

 play your tune from beginning to end without a stop, with 

 an organ — any other plan, of course, is impossible, the diffi- 

 culty sometimes being to get a refractory instrument to stop 

 when you wish it ; but if you vary your instrumental solo 

 with whistling, you must not whistle snatches of any mel- 



