Jnne 15, 1871. ] 



JOURNAL OP HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



429 



pivoted in the centre of the sash, to be opened or shut as the 

 requirements of ventilation demand. Each house has its com- 

 plement of twenty boxes for laying, placed under the eaves, 

 and partly concealed by bundles of straw. 



Near the family residence is a large building, devoted to the 

 storing of grain and eggs ; a nursery for sick hens ; a long 

 room for hatching, and another for slaughtering purposes. lu 

 the sick room are arranged a series of boxes, each large 

 enough for the comfort and convenience of its solitary occu- 

 pant, who is there placed and treated for its malady with as 

 much care as if its value were dollars instead of cents, and with 

 such skill that the ratio of deaths has been only 1 in 280. 



The sitting department is also provided with boxes, some 

 three hundred in number. Here all are brought from their 

 lespective coops as soon as their incubating propensity shows 

 itself, and plic d upon their quota of eggs. Food, water, and 

 a large supply of sand and ashes, are provided, and the sitting 

 hen not allowed to leave the room until she takes her young 

 brood with her. 



_ The clutches are then " doubled up " — that is, two broods 

 given to one hen, and the chickenless one sent back to her coop 

 to resume her egg-laying. As soon as the young chicks are 

 discarded by their mother they are taken to their future home, 

 fifty in each lot, and the old ones back to their respective 

 localities. 



The fowls are fed three times per day, and their diet so 

 arranged as to always present a variety, although oats are their 

 staple article of food, and always before them in unlimited 

 quantity. To-day it will be Indian meal, made into a stifi' 

 dough and given hot ; to-morrow, barley ; next day, boiled 

 potatoes, mashed and mixed with pork scraps and bran — corn 

 broken in a coarse mill, and so on in rotation ; adding from 

 time to time a dead horse, or some other cheap and inexpensive 

 animal food. Burned bones, pounded shells, and lime, are sup- 

 plied in profusion. These, with what the fowls gather on their 

 foraging expeditions, produce a wonderful supply of eggs. 



During the rainy season they are not allowed to leave the 

 •coop, except the day be exceedingly pleasant, and then only for 

 a short time. They appear to bear their confinement remark- 

 ably well, and with hardly any decrease in the quantity of eggs. 

 While confined they have an extra allowance of animal food. 



The attendants requisite to the care of these 6000 fowls 

 are one man and four boys. The houses are thoroughly cleaned 

 once a-week, and the interiors whitewashed every three months. 

 Every morning each lot of fowls undergo a careful inspec- 

 tion, and anyone found moping or otherwise indisposed is 

 immediately taken to the hospital and cared for ; and seldom 

 is it but that the indisposition is cured, and she takes her 

 place back again as well as ever. At evening the boys go the 

 rounds to gather up the proceeds of the day's labour, which will 

 average two hundred dozen per day the year through. 



The profits from one year's business amounted to 11,000 dols. 

 The sales are seventy-two thousand dozens of eggs, and nearly 

 20,000 chickens and two-year-olds. Mr. San ]?uentes expresses 

 himself as being perfectly satisfied with the result obtained, 

 and intends to double his stock each year, until every 200 feet 

 of his extensive farm has its house of fifty tenents. — 0. F. 

 Peaece, Freetovjii, Mass. — {Rural Neiu Yorker.) 



THE OWL PIGEON. 



Most fanciers of Pigeons during some time have kept, and 

 probably have derived an especial pleasure in breeding, this 

 admirable little toy of the dovecote or aviary, for without a 

 doubt it is one of the favourites ; and although these birds may 

 not rank quite so high as his majesty " Eing Carrier," his 

 serene highness the noble and towering Pouter, the richly- 

 -feathered and chaste little Almond, or the aristocratic and 

 highly-esteemed Barb — still, for general character and figure, 

 ■there are few varieties which excel these exquisite little frilled- 

 chested favourites. 



Owls have many recommendations, and therefore have found, 

 and still cott'nue to find, much favour ; for besides th;ir neat, 

 compact, pretty form, and their almost unceasing activity, they 

 are seldom "caught napping," or seen to disadvantage ; their 

 sprightly little rotund forms are generally on the stir, and 

 they not only display their beauty of outline, but they show 

 off to unusual advantage, and they always make the most of 

 their diminutive size by the " airs and graces " in which Nature 

 so frequently permits her pigmy creatures to indulge. Be it 

 known to those who have not already made the discovery, that 

 this pretty Pigeon is a proud stuck-up little creature. The 



Carrier may extend his graceful neck to its utmost stretch, 

 and thus look down upon most of his brethren ; the Almond 

 may proudly stmt among his fellows, and boast of his gay 

 attire ; the Pouter may inflate his crescent-marked crop, and 

 thus eclipse from view the smaller fry ; or the glossy Barb, 

 with massive head and ruby spectacles, may play his attractive 

 part amongst a pleasing group of other rare beauties; but the 

 gaiety in Pigeondom is not replete unless the vivacious little 

 Owl is promenading there, for he has much to be proud of, and 

 if there, is sure to make his presence known, strutting, flying, 

 billing, cooing, prying all about, in and out, and back again 

 directly ; with head thrown back he trips along apparently 

 conscious of the important position which he holds in the 

 Pigeon genus of which, it is said, he is the representative " from 

 Afric's burning clime." However, whether in a show pen, an 

 aviary, or in his peregrinations on the housetops, he is suffi- 

 ciently acclimatised, and certainly thrives well in old England. 

 Ha is gay and full of life — now saluting his partner with pro- 

 found bows and Platonic assurances, and, like a true lover, not 

 attempting to conceal from his love the ruffled state of his 

 throbbing breast. He fully displays the frill or goffered front 

 with which he is so finely bedecked ; but to see him, perhaps, 

 to the best advantage is at the time when he is dancing attend- 

 ance around his mate and running her to nest ; he then, as 

 with most other Pigeons, shows ofi to the greatest advantage. 



Owls, speaking generally, are of a strong and vigorous con- 

 stitution, and they are remarkably active birds ; they are also 

 good breeders, and good flying birds too, for when allowed their 

 liberty — the larger and more robust and hardy kinds especi- 

 ally — they have proved that the homing faculty is well deve- 

 loped, and that, whilst possessing great powers of flight, they 

 are enable:! to discover their homes from long distances. 0£ 

 course if, like most of the valuable Pigeon tribe, it falls to 

 their lot to be doomed to long incarceration within an aviary or 

 Pigeon-loft, they soon lose that keen instinct so remarkable 

 in them ; and such Would be the case, too, with the more nottd 

 homing Pigeons were they subjected to similar imprisonment. 

 However, just now is not the time to discuss the flying pro- 

 perties of the Owl in detail, or we could adduce ample testi- 

 mony of their capabilities as voyageurs, but these facts we pass 

 by, as we wish to draw attention more particularly to their 

 qualifications as show birds of perfect character. 



First, then, it is perhaps advisable to state that there is a 

 division in the Owl family, yet to our minds the line of demar- 

 cation appears to be so indistinct that we confess that confusion 

 is too often the consequence of such severance, and it often 

 leads to unpleasant results in adjudicating upon the merits of 

 the two classes ; for, as is well known, there are English Owls 

 and foreign Owls, and the happy medium also, resulting from 

 the admixture of the two recognised stocks, but (unfortunately 

 for the judges) size chiefly constitutes the dift'erence between 

 the two families. The English breed are much the larger 

 birds, but should possess all the good qualities of the imported 

 stock, which birds unquestionably are far more attractive than 

 their English brethren, for these, in comparison, appear to be a 

 coarser and more hardy kind. It is not our desire, however, 

 to raise up one standard by knocking down another, nor do we 

 wish to exalt the merits of one variety above those of any 

 other, for we admire them all, and must leave to our fellow 

 fanciers the task of selection, and the propriety of discussing 

 the wisdom of the decision to which we have alluded, whilst 

 we pass on to notice the points of excellence of the Owl. 



Owls are of various colours, and amongst the most attractive 

 and numerous varieties are Blues, Silvers, Whites, Blacks, 

 Reds, and Yellows. Various interminglings of those enume- 

 rated have resulted in strange and varied pieds, splashes. Blacks 

 with white tails, and Whites with black tails, silver tails, blue 

 tail?, and other and multifarious freaks of nature too numerous 

 to particularise, many of which may lay claim to great beauty, 

 but not being of pure blood are not regarded as permanent 

 varieties, consequently they simply bear the name of the stock 

 from which they sprang. 



Owl Pigeons should be small birds, compact in form, short 

 from the breast to the end of the tail. They should have nicely 

 rounded heads, and a very short and curved beak, which should 

 form a segment of a circle in continuance of the line of head. 

 From near the end of the lower beak should fall, in nearly a 

 straight hne, a loosely- hanging feather-covered skin, or " dew- 

 lap," terminating at its lower extremity in the gullet, from 

 which should protrude evenly on either side a large and full- 

 feathered frill or ruffle. This ornamental frontispiece should 

 extend low down the breast and finish-off in a sort of rose or 



