December 29, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



523 



wake, snapped off every hyacinth he could reach, and pulled the green 

 tops off all the radishes in the bed. On another occasion he was dis- 

 covered, perched on the study table, a pen in his beak, with which, 

 after dipping it into the inkstand, he deliberately scrawled over the 

 pages of all the books lying open aronnd him. The inky meanderings 

 of his pen remain to this day to testify against him. I think poor 

 " Jacky " finished his exploit- by drowning himself in a "beck" which 

 flowed at the bottom of the garden. 



At this period I have a lively remembrance of the intense pleasure 

 I took in watching the bees at their work amongst the flowers. We 

 used to catch them in the bells of the Foxglove, carry them in their 

 pretty little prisons to the greenhouse door, and let them in through 

 the keyhole to fructify the blossoms of the melon and cucumber plants 

 ■ — not that we then knew why they were wanted in the greenhouse, but 

 we were none the less proud when we had successfully escorted a 

 captive thither. 



As far as I remember the favourites which followed "Jacky" were 

 a pair of pretty "Wood Pigeons. The chief thing to be recorded of 

 them, or rather of one of them, is that he or she pecked a thimble off 

 my finger one day when I was feeding them, and swallowed it bodily. A 

 poor frightened child I was then, I felt sure my dear Dove would die, 

 and kept it shut up in its cage for days ; but never a bit the worse was 

 "Dovey." "What became of the thimble I know not, nor can I recol- 

 lect what eventually became of my Pigeons. 



To these succeeded Rabbits, and a tame Hawk ; the latter a most 

 exigeant pet, for he required a poor little bird to be sacrificed to him 

 almost daily ; but he was really tame, and truly affectionate, and on 

 the sad day when " the children " were all dispatched to school, the 

 poor Hawk screeched so incessantly and so discordantly he had to be 

 given away. 



Two dear little Hares came nest, they were found by the mowers 

 when cutting the hay, and were tiny Hares indeed — both could sit 

 comfortably together in the palm of my hand. The men brought 

 them to the rectory saying, " If anybody can keep 'em alive 'tis Miss 

 Jemima." Never were two prettier little pets, or two prettier great 

 pets when they grew up, for grow up they did. At first they were kept 

 in "Miss Jemima's " bedroom, and fed on warm milk out of a bottle 

 with a quill in the cork of it. The bottle was alwayB deposited under 

 my pillow when I went to bed, and " Tiny " and " Boss " tucked up 

 comfortably in a basket of wool in a corner of the room. At early 

 dawn, mindful of my nurslings, I invariably awoke, and putting my 

 hand out of bed found the little creatures as near as ever they could 

 get to me. close to the vallance of the bedstead. It was pretty to see 

 them runniog after me about the house and garden, and had it not 

 been for the domestic dogs and cats they would always have been at 

 liberty. They grew and throve, and soon ate bread and grass and 

 clover, and all that hares ought to eat, but they never lost their love 

 fcr milk, nor for their foster-mother. 



I must pass over many other favourites, and come to the present 

 family pets ; not to speak of two beautiful, silky black and tan spaniels, 

 almost human in their intelligence, and more than human in their 

 obedience, unvarying affection, and wonderful noses, and an old grev 

 torn cat, of whom much could be said. There are two tortoises, 

 named Diogenes and Ulysses, who have the full range of a large un- 

 walled garden, but who have never left its precincts, though naturally 

 Ulysses is the more addicted to wandering. Their habits are very 

 singular, and well worth watching, and they are decidedly far less shy 

 and retiring than they wei e ; they now do not object to dining in public, 

 and Diogenes has a newly-acquired trick of giving a loud hiss, if taken 

 up suddenly, or turned upside down ; I presume it is expressive of bis 

 wrath and disapprobation. At the present time they have both hidden 

 themselves, we know not where, for their winter snooze, and we shall 

 probably see nothing more of them till April or May. 



There is also a cage fnll of Canaries, and my last pet fact is con- 

 nected with my birdies. A prisoner to the sofa for many months, 

 owing to an accident, one of my chief interests was a pair of Canaries 

 building their first nest. In dne time four pretty blue-grey eggs, 

 spotted with brown at one end, were deposited therein, and one morn- 

 ing, all a fortnight after the last was laid, I heard to my great delight 

 a faint " chip " " chip " from the cage, and knew that the chicks were 

 hatched. But alas ! two days afterwards the cage fell down, the 

 mother bird and her babies were jolted ont of the nest, and either from 

 some injury, or, as I believe from fright, the gentle little mother died 

 in a few hours. The grief the loss occasioned need not be dwelt upon ; 

 carefully the nestlings were replaced in the nest, and I fondly hoped 

 the cock bird, a most attentive husband and father, would bring up the 

 children. He did his best — he fed them assiduously, but had no notion 

 of " gathering them under his wing ;" so, though I covered them with 

 wool as soon as they had had their last evening meal, before morning 

 two were dead, and the third dying of cold. The poor little naked 

 survivor I kept in my hand, expecting momentarily it would die too, 

 but by-and-by a faint piping was audible, which gradually grew louder 

 and stronger. The warmth had revived "the motherless bairn," and 

 it wanted its breakfast. It soon had some, and for the benefit of such 

 of your readers as may be placed in similar circumstances, I will 

 describe exactly what its food was:— An egg boiled quite hard and 

 crumbled to powder, a little white well-baked bread grated fine, some 

 scaled rape seed pounded, and as many of the black skins as possible 

 picked out, a mashed lettuce, groundsel, or watercress leaf. 

 With this mixture my chick was fed for weeks ; I put a little of it in 



the palm of my hand and mashed it well together with half a drop of 

 warm water. I then took a quill cut exactly like a pen, minus the slit, 

 in one hand (having filled it with the food), and a wooden match in 

 the other, and when the little- mouth gaped open I put the quill quite 

 down the throat, and pushed off the food with the stick ; it was eagerly 

 swallowed and more gaped for. I found by its pipings that the baby 

 required to be fed every hour ; at first two quills full satisfied it, and 

 afterwards it devoured three or four at a meal. 



I cannot say my child was pretty at first, hut when fledged it was a 

 fair, pure yellow Canary, and received the name of Fairy. I need 

 not say my birdie was tame — it was more than tame, it slept in a tiny 

 wadded basket by my side at night, and nestled on my pillow or 

 shoulder by day. When Fairy was five weeks old, I went with a sister 

 to a pretty seaside village eight miles distant ; Fairy of course went 

 too, but alas ! and alas ! one Sunday morning, when, as usual, it was 

 perched on the pillow of my Bofa, the room, and the house door being 

 open, in floated a pretty brown butterfly, and off fairy flew after it. 

 The butterfly floated out again into the sunshine, with Fairy still in 

 attendance. All day long the whole of the village, who had learned 

 to love the tame birdie, were roaming the lanes and fields ; many 

 times the lost pet was seen skimming the blue sky, darting with the 

 Swallows round the old ruined castla, or lighting on a chimney or 

 housetop, but never near enough to be caught. It would perhaps be 

 more faithful than wise to confess that a good many tears were shed 

 while Fairy was thus enjoying herself. 



At last all hopes were given up, and evening was closing in, when 

 down came the fair little birdie, and lighted on its forlorn mistress's 

 shoulder, and kissed her as if nothing had happened. Fairy has never 



| had another out-of-door flight, but she has travelled a great deal for a 

 bird, and brought up many dozen children of her ©wn — brown, spotted, 



J golden, and white — but none so cherished nor so tame as our pet 



j Fairy.— C. J. S. 



THE FLYING TUMBLER. 



The Flying Tumbler is the most general favourite fancy 

 Pigeon. Its easy propagation and generally Bound constitution 

 render it most Buitable to a young fancier ; it soon establishes 

 a hold upon his regard, which would not be the case, probably, 

 with the more highly-cultivated breeds, which require more 

 knowledge and care to breed and keep in health. Another 

 recommendation is its low price, for every boy can raise suffi- 

 cient money for the purchase of a pair of Tumblers, and we 

 '. have no hesitation in saying that more true and staunch 

 ; fanciers have begun with Tumblers than any, perhaps all, othtr 

 | varieties. 



We may also claim as ancient a pedigree for the Flying 

 Tumbler as for any of his high-born cousins, for the earliest 

 writers were familiar with it, and record its amusing and merry 

 habits, and how its more studious and intelligent admire) s 

 originated his varied plumage, and laid the foundation of that 

 most exquisite and much-admired gem, the Almond of the 

 ' present day. 



The Baldpate, Beard, Black, Bed, and Yel'ow Mottles of the 

 old fanciers have still numerous admirers, although, as a rule, 

 feather has been greatly neglected of late by the Flying fan- 

 ciers. A few who combine a taste for feather with flying have 

 taken the class of Tumblers represented by the engraving, and 

 by care and perseverance have produced a few samples that 

 possess some amount of merit. They are great favourites in 

 and about Birmingham, and are as various in colour as the 

 clear-legged birds, Black and Red Mottles or Bosewings, Bed- 

 breasted, White-sides, and Yellow Whole-feather among the 

 datk-wiDged ones. The white-winged are divided into Saddles 

 and Badges ; and there are Black, Blue, and Bed Saddles ; 

 Black, Blue, Bed, and Bronze Badges. 



They are free-flyers, and most of them rollers, mad or very 

 sharp tumblers if they are allowed to fly ; but it is seldom the 

 best-feathered birds are trusted to the many casualties attend- 

 ing flying in a large town like Birmingham. 



The original of the engraving was selected as the standard 

 for the Dark or Bose-winged birds — Mottles — that is, the 

 marking on the pinion should form or resemble a rose ; there 

 should not be any white elsewhere. The Bed-breasted White- 

 sided birds should be red all through the short and long 

 flights, tail, and the whole of the body ; the whole of the side 

 or pinion white. The Black and Blue Saddles should be dark 

 on the whole of the body down to the hocks, the muffs from 

 the hocks to the toes' end white ; the head should be evenly 

 sprinkled or iadged, the throat bearded, and for half an inch 

 up the nose the width of the wattle also white ; the back 

 saddle marked as the Magpie. The Red Saddles the same as 

 Blue and Black, with the exception of a white tail. The Black, 

 Blue, and Bronze Badges should be marked on the head as the 

 Saddles, the whole of the bird dark elsewhere, esoept the muffs 



