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FANCIERS' JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 



When he is fat enough to kill, which will be in a week 

 or so if treated as given above, catch it by the ears with the 

 left hand, and with the right plunge a sharp pocket-knife 

 into its jugular artery, as fowls are killed ; now hang it up 

 by the hind legs for half an hour, until the blood has thor- 

 oughly drained away. Never kill a rabbit by a blow be- 

 hind the ear, as is often done; this way is greatly inferior 

 to the former in every respect, the flesh not being near so 

 white or tender. 



When rabbits are bred for table use, I should advise all 

 the young bucks intended for this purpose to be castrated. 

 The rabbits served thus are greatly superior in size, fatness, 

 and flavor to others allowed to remain in their natural 

 state. Philo. 



I JEJV1 S. 



In order to make our "Item " column as interesting as possible, we 

 would be obliged to our readers for contributions of original matter, how- 

 ever short— yes, let it be condensed and to the point, in a variety of 

 style — facts and fancies interesting to fanciers. 



$gjf° A family of original cremationists — Burn-'ems. 

 g@" The " Worst " fancier in this country is at Ashland, 

 Ashland County, Ohio ; and what is most strange, he is said 

 to be perfectly reliable in all his dealings — his name is E. 

 J. Worst. 



figf The following lines are said to have been copied from 

 a stone in Oxford: 



To all my friends I bid adieu ; 

 A more sudden death you never knew ; 

 As I was leading the old mare to drink, 

 She kicked, and killed me quicker'n a wink. 



8®° There is an elm 84 years old and about six feet in 

 diameter at Franklin, Vt., and the man near whose house 

 it stands, says that when he was a boy he pulled it up, 

 which made his father so mad that he walloped him with it 

 and then set it out again. 



BS^" An alleged lunatic was consigned to an asylum by 

 his wife and friends. A gentleman said to a lady who 

 doubted the victim's insanity: " What do you think madam, 

 of his lying on his back in the barn-yard, and permitting 

 hens to feed off his body?" "Why, nothing more," re- 

 sponded the lady, " than that, like many other married 

 men, he was hen-pecked." 



J6@" A lot of rats were found, the other day, in a hogs- 

 head that had been left open in a store at Exeter. The 

 store cat, having been notified, climbed to the edge of the 

 hogshead, but, after surveying the situation, jumped down 

 and ran out at the door, reappearing with another cat. The 

 two looked at their foes and retired, soon coming back with 

 a third cat. They now seemed satisfied with their force, 

 and made an attack, jumping into the hogshead. The cats 

 had, however, miscalculated the force of their enemy, and 

 two were killed, the other being taken out in season to save 

 its life. 



J8@~ A youth of Salisbury, four years old, and his young 

 sister, saw a rat hasten into a hole in the barn floor. Said 

 he, "Sis, the Bible says, 'Watch and pray.' Tou pray 

 while I watch the hole, and I'll swat him acrost the snoot 

 when he comes out." 



fi@"° The author of a recent book about Africa, tells of a 

 forest of acacia trees he passed through. These are called 

 by the natives, " soffar," a word signifying a flute. The 

 name is given because the acacia trees are pierced with cir- 

 cular holes by a small insect, and the wind, as it plays upon 

 the openings, produces flute-like sounds. In the winter, 

 when the trees are stripped of their leaves, and boughs white 

 as chalk stretch out like ghosts, the wind, sighing through 

 the insect-made flutes, AIIb the whole air with soft melan- 

 choly tunes. 



flg^° A correspondent favors Galignani with the following 

 additional list of the curiosities of the English language : 

 " Fowlers speak of a sege of herons and bitterns ; a herd of 

 swans, cranes or curlews ; a depping of sheldrakes ; a spring 

 of teals ; a covert of coots ; a gaggle of geese ; a badelynge 

 of ducks ; a sord or sute of mallards ; a muster of peacocks ; 

 a nye of pheasants ; a bevy of quails ; a congregation of 

 plovers; a walk of snipes ; a fall of woodcocks; a brood of 

 hens ; a building of rooks ; a murmuration of starlings ; an 

 exaltation of larks ; a flight of swallows ; a host of spar- 

 rows ; a watch of nightingales, and a charm of goldfinches." 

 g@= Crafty Reynard.— Ireland has had queer notions 

 in her time, and it is not so long since the fox, though dreaded, 

 and hated, was treated with great respect, for fear of his 

 working harm. The old belief still lingers in the Celtic 

 districts, and the good housewives, as in the olden days, lay 

 wool on the bushes as a peace offering to the fox, or make 

 mittens out of lambs' wool for his feet, leaving them at the 

 entrance of his den. They believe that the fox wears mit- 

 tens on cold nights, when he goes on a foraging tramp, and 

 in gratitude will not carry off the chicks of the donor. In 

 West Mayo, and Donegal, the fox is always called the "red 

 fellow," the "gentleman," or some other polite name ; for 

 it is thought that he would spitefully kill every fowl be- 

 longing to a person bold enough to utter his name without 

 due respect. 



fig^" Wild geese every year, as population increases, grow 

 fewer in number. For many years Long Island was a 

 favorite place to shoot these birds during their spring mi- 

 gration. There also they are not so numerous as formerly. 

 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 to obtain from fifteen to 

 twenty wild geese by "winning" 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 light, when the 

 gunner rises and shoots. 



J6g^= A friend of ours told us, says " A Rural Eeader " in 

 the Canada Farmer, the other day, how his wife cures hens 

 of sitting; and, as it is a very novel way, we will repeat it 

 for the benefit of others who are bothered with inveterate 

 old sitters. Picking up some splinters from the chip-yard 

 (some four or five inches long) she bound them firmly to the 

 hen's legs, leaving only the hip joints in working order. 

 Biddie was outwitted ; like the old Dutchman's hen she 

 would have to sit standing up. 



