MiTch 21, 18C5. ] 



JOUKNAIi OF HOKTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



241 



ing Englishmen that thia may be done, then few will deny 

 his claim to be fairly considered a national benefactor. At 

 present his task is not an easy one. As it is really the duty 

 of every well-wisher of his country to aid this noble eifort 

 by eveiy practical means, so your experienced readers 

 should each contribute so far as he can to simplify this 

 question by clearing up the doubts and difSci-Uies tliat 

 suiTOund it. Men are natui'ally timid and shy of embai-king 

 their money in any novel experiment of which they have 

 but very scanty knowledge, and which of us can say that he 

 has any knowledge of thus producing eggs and poultry 

 commercially in England? For the present I shall say 

 nothing about the little animal which is well known to be a 

 decided commercial success in Belgium, where many are 

 largely engaged in breeding, feeding, and exporting to 

 hungry, wealthy England the— Ostend Eaebit. 



ME. DOUGLAS AND THE GAME BANTAMS 

 AT MANCHESTEE. 

 I DID not attend the Manchester Exhibition, but I received 

 a letter from Mr. Fielding, in which he stated that Mr. 

 Douglas had claimed the first prize pen of Game Bantams, 

 and that the birds were offered to me for ^£10. I authorised 

 Mr. Fielding to purchase the pen, but at the same time 

 observed that a judge acted improperly in claiming birds 

 at a show. The money, less a sum due to me from the 

 Islington Show, was remitted to Mr. Douglas by Mr. Field- 

 ing- I highly disapprove of anonymous accusations, and 

 recommend " A Timid Exhibitok " and " He Who Resold 

 THE .BANTAMS" in justice to all parties concerned to com- 

 mmucate their names to your readers.— St. Geobc4e Gobe, 

 Hopton Hall, Wirkswm-ih, Derjyyshire. 



EXTEA PEIZES FOE PAETEIDGE-COLOUEED 



COCHIN-CHINA FOWLS. 



of^J^A.^'^^'^J'^^ ^^**®'' "^ ^-- Tomlinaon, in your Journal 

 t-hf. TT.vf B-™^*-' i-especting extra prizes for Buff Cochins at 

 lat,fZ Birmingham Show, and being as enthusiastic an 

 aam^ei and breeder of Partridge birds as ho is of Buif, I 



for old tl¥^'^ ^^t- f '^"^' P"=^^ °'- ""IS °'- ^^° «"P=. say 

 T bnl l"""!^ ''^'^'' ^^ g'^«" to Pai-tridge Cochins ; and 

 thi^ oW^rt^f-''^"''''' ™ subscribing £2 in furtherance of 

 thesamel;?". "'°*''^* "^^"^ ^^'t^dge breeders wiU do 

 tnesame and at once send their subscriptions to Mr. Lythall, 

 S^'^ ~^''^^'''' Tubman, Ash Grove, Whitchurch, 



DISTINCT VAEIETIES OF PIGEONS. 

 It is with pleasui-e I respond to " Wiltshire Eeotob's " 

 request as to my opinion respecting the distinct varieties 

 01 our^domesuc Pigeons. I write " varieties " because the 

 wora race seems to me to be too uncertain of meaning 

 ana when explaining our ideas we cannot be too particular 

 as to the words we make use of. I consider that all our 

 aomestic Pigeons are descended from the Wild Rock 

 Rr5.i°^^' ' °OMequently, ai-e all of one species; but these 

 xtocjv Pigeons, even in a wild state, present us with sHght 

 variations, which have been designated as sub-species or 

 geographical varieties. These are the Blue Rock with 

 white rump, the Blue Rock with blue rump, the Blue Rock 

 with chequered shoulders, and the chequered Dovehouse 

 rigeons— variations slight indeed, but such as have been 

 consiaered by naturalists to constitute only geographical 

 varieties and not distinct species. These varieties of Blue 

 Kocks having been domesticated in different countries 

 and then- offspring becommg crossed and mixed has given 

 an impetus to sporting or greater variations, which, under 

 the lostermg care of man have been wonderfully increased 

 and developed, sometimes by accident, at others by careful 

 selection. Through many successive ages have the variety 

 ot domestic Pigeons arrived at their present state. 



-Sil tame Pigeons are therefore supposed to be of one 

 species. But there are very many varieties. Let us take 



Persian Carrier (closely resembling our Dragoons), is pro- 

 bably the original, or, at least, the oldest known example ; 

 it has been bred with longer beaks, as in the Scanda- 

 roons, Bagdads or Horsemen, and with shorter beaks, as in 

 theBarbs. The English Carrier is the last or newest sub- 

 variety of the Wattled variety. I believe it to be admitted 

 that the English Carrier is essentially a high fancy bird, and 

 produced from a cross from Persian and Bagdad Carriers 

 with a dash of Powter. The sub-varieties may therefore be 

 regarded as the various branches of one family; they all 

 bear a striking family likeness, and yet differ much in size, 

 form, length of beak, &c. As to colour of the plumage, 

 that may be influenced and altered at will, leaving so little 

 appearance of any admixture in other respects, that a bird 

 can hardly be said to be of another sub-variety, because 

 it is of a different shade or tint. Black seems to be the 

 original colour- of this family or variety. 



Next as to Fantails. Here we find white as the original 

 plumage of this family or variety ; and, as in the preceding, 

 we have several sub-varieties, as the Indian with long necks 

 and point-headed ; the German, with shorter necks and 

 turned crowns ; the French SUk Fantails, and our graceful 

 English broad-taUed Shakers. Various colours are in the 

 Fantails of much more recent introduction, black and blue 

 not being uncommon. No doubt they were first produced 

 by a cross, but if weU up in the requisite points of the 

 variety are so much the more valued by fanciers. 



As to the colour of the eyes, the dark hazel is common to 

 all white Pigeons, the difficulty is to breed a white Pigeon 

 with any other. All the wattled Pigeons just alluded to, 

 when they come of white plumage have dark eyes ; but dark 

 Pigeons have light eyes. I remember a curious blunder in 

 this respect among the stuffed Pigeons in the Prince of 

 Weld's museum, where the white Fantails were stuffed with 

 pearl eyes, and some other dark breed had received their 

 dark eyes. Coloured Pigeons, or such as have coloured 

 heads, as a rule have light eyes. Sometimes white Tumblers 

 have pearl eyes, but they are difficult to breed ; and I have 

 at this time an excellent breed of white Tumblers, many of 

 which tumble from thirty to forty times in a minute, that 

 have just that deep hazel iris and black pupil which " Wilt- 

 SHLEE Rector" alludes to. In parti-coloured birds, as 

 Almonds, Baldheads, and Beards, it is the aim of the fancier 

 to breed the Pigeons with pearl eyes, but they well know 

 the proueness of such birds to breed broken eyes ; and in 

 many of the Toys, where the division line of white and 

 colour passes through the eye, such birds often have the 

 eyes half and half, that touching the white plumage being 

 hazel or dark, while that part next the coloured feathers 

 will be gravel. I do not therefore lay much stress on the 

 colour of the eyes ; that I beUeve to be influenced by the 

 plumage in our domestic Pigeons. I have no doubt but that 

 all varieties were originally of a certain colour, and that of 

 that colour they were best ; but fancy often changes, and 

 better birds after a time may be had of quite a different 

 colour, so much depends on cultivation. 



The purity of varieties is so very different to the distinct- 

 ness of different species that the two will hardly bear com- 

 parison. Many of our choicest J)reeds of Pigeons and poultry 

 are so crossed either accidentally or intentionally, that abso- 

 lute purity of variety is a thing more easily talked about 

 than proved. If individuals of some desired form or colour 

 are selected and bred carefully for three, four, or more 

 generations, the offspring wUl generally come pretty neaa-ly 

 alike ; and I suppose this is what some persons allude to 

 when they call this, that, or the other a pure breed or a 

 distinct race — terms more easily said, I think, than ex- 

 plained. Generic or specific distinctions are very different. 

 They are limited by nature, and the mixture of species 

 generally produces barren mules. — B. P. Brent. 



A Vermin Trap Wanted. — We beg to direct attention 

 to an advertisement in which the Royal Society for the Pre- 

 vention of Cruelty to Animals offer a prize for an improved 

 vermin trap, which shall either, without inflicting torture, 

 secure vermin alive or instantaneously destroy them. There 



fi^n iTi<.t!i»i/> 4.V " ' '■"' "'•', •" ■-"'-"^■=- -"=" "-= ""lac, can be no doubt that much unnecessary pain is inflicted by 



lor insiancb, the variety with wattled beaks, of which, the i many of the contrivances at present in use, when it becomes 



