146 



/ 



uincv 



P 



/iSCons. 



without any tendency to the absurd exaggeration of any fancy point. 

 Of course no really practical judge would give a prize in a homing class 

 even to such a bird unless he were in first rate condition, with his plumage 

 hard and firm, the flight feathers broad and overlapping, and the bones of 

 the wing well clothed with powerful muscles. To prove that this bird is 

 as good as he looks, I may give his history. He was hatched early in 

 1874 from a bird of Mons. Ch. Mills, that was one of the first winners in 

 the great annual national match, from MarseilleSj in the south of France, 

 to Belgium — a 500 miles race. The same year, as a young bird, he flew 





17,1 



Pifi. 3. 



from St. Quentin and Greil (about 200 miles), and in 1875 he again flew 

 from St. Quentin, taking first prize; also from Paris, Orleans, and wag a 

 winner in the race from London — 200 mUes. 



" At my request Mons. Ch. Mills sent him over to show at the 

 Alexandra poultry show, 19th Oct., 1875, and I induced him— very 

 reluctantly, I am afraid — to part with him. The bird was necessarily 

 useless to me to fly, for, on liberation, he would doubtless have returned 

 to Brussels, as I have had birds do after two years' confinement in 



