CHAPTER XXXIX. 



A SATISFACTOKY PEDIGREE. 



In the course of my live-stock experience, and espe- 

 cially during the excitement that prevailed amidst the routine 

 of the hen-trade, 1 found myself constantly the recipient of 

 scores and hundreds of the most ridiculously unreasonable 

 and meaningless letters, from the fever-struck (and inno- 

 cent) but uninitiated 'victims of this epidemic. 



In England, amongst other nonsense bearing upon this 

 subject, the more cunning poultry-keepers resorted to the 

 furnishing oi pedigrees for the birds they sold. This trick 

 ■worked to admiration in Great Britain for a time, and the 

 highest-sounding names were given to certain favorite fowls 

 the progeny of which ("with pedigree attached") com- 

 manded the most extravagant and ruinous prices, in the 

 English "fancy" market. 



For instance, I noticed in the London papers, in 1852, 

 an account given of the sale of "two splendid cinnamon- 

 colored chickens, out of the famous cock 'Jerry,' by the 

 noted hen 'Beauty,' sired by 'Napoleon,' upon the wellr 



