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than once I have heard some lady exclaim, "Oh ! aren't they the 



finest birds you ever saw?" pointing to the row of buffs. Right 



they are ; there is no question about that. As setters and mothers 



there is no better. As I heard one fellow say : "They will set any 



place, on anything, and any length of time." Seldom breaking an 



egg or killing a chick, they have come to be the dependent birds 



of the pheasant breeders of the country, and they are the ones 



who value their eggs at long prices. As layers they are good, and 



some of you people who have not room to keep the large birds 



would do well to have a few to lay some fresh eggs instead of 



buying six months to one year old cased eggs from the West. 



The cost of keeping a few is practically nothing. They require 



the least room of any of the bantams, a yard 10 x 15 being plenty 



Black Cochin Bantam Hen. 



of room for five or six, with a small dry goods box for a house. 

 Now, let me say if you contemplate breeding a few birds for 

 pleasure of fancy (and there is a lot of sport showing in the dif- 

 ferent shows, winning occasionally, getting beat once in a while), 

 you can make no mistake in starting with the grandest of all 

 bantams — "Cochin." 



Brahma Bantams. 



The Brahma bantams are bred in both light and dark vari- 

 eties, and like the Cochins, are miniatures of the standard birds, 

 but are not as yet to their state of perfection, but the past 

 several years has made marked improvements on them, and it 

 will not be long until they show the same quality as the standard 

 birds. One of the hard problems in breeding the bantams is to 



