KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



35 



STRONG CONTRASTS. 



THE CAT AND THE DOG. 



The Cat. — A cat lives only for herself. 

 Her heart is entirely cold. Her affections 

 are interested and temporary. She has little 

 part or sympathy in your enjoyments. She 

 purrs when you rub her back, but scratches 

 you if you do not rub it in the right place. 

 She performs you no service, but the cruel 

 one of torturing the little mice — the fero- 

 cious wretch ! She likes comfort, too. No 

 sly monk ever stretched himself in quiet 

 before the comfortable blaze, and fed on the 

 fat and cream of the land, with more hearty 

 zest. But you get no thanks — and you 

 scarcely, with all your caresses, bolster up 

 anything like a real acquaintance with the 

 creature. She has her own secret haunts, 

 where you cannot trace her. She flies you 

 when she is full. She cannot conceal the 

 ingratitude of her cold and lonely nature. 

 She communes with, you know not whom, 

 in strange hours and places. Now you find 

 her watching on the house-roof. Well ! 

 Wheat has she to do there ? Go down into 

 the cellar an hour after, to search for some- 

 thing thrown aside amid old lumber, and 

 you behold her two great green eyes, all 

 fiendish light and fire, blazing on you from 

 the innermost recess of the darkest hole — in 

 unreachable places — alone — crouching, wait- 

 ing. What the deuce has any honest person 

 to do there ? You behold her sometimes 

 stealing silently, stealthily, like some one on 

 a guilty and mysterious mission, amid the 

 cobweb hung beams of the garret ; and, if 

 you have a room devoted to yourself — a 

 pantry with sweetmeats and treasures — all 

 the keys in Christendom won't keep her 

 from a secret, close, thorough scrutiny, till 

 she knows what every.jar, and pot, and pan, 

 and escrutoire contains as well as you do. 

 Are these the manners of a straight-forward, 

 open minded animal ? 



The Dog. — How unlike is the reputation 

 of the cat to that of our good-natured and 

 honest friend the dog ! Of the latter, what 

 noble and heroic deeds are related ! How 

 he has saved the master that was drowning 

 him, and licked the hand that had shot him 

 in the act of his duty ! How many skulking 

 robbers he has arrested — how he ha& fought 

 and died in defence of those he loved — how 

 many children he has dragged out of ponds 

 and rivers ! What is there in man superior 

 to his courage — his forgiveness — his magnan- 

 imity — his fidelity — his sagacity — his grati- 

 tude ! How beautiful, too, he often is ! 

 What a face he has, sometimes, when he 

 looks into his master's eyes for approbation ! 

 Give him but a smile — a word — a caress, 



and all his faithful services are more than 

 repaid, and he would meet death in its direst 

 form at the slightest token of your will ! 

 How he enters into the habits of his master ! 

 How he learns and accommodates himself 

 to his ways ! You cannot make him so 

 happy as in allowing him to serve you ; and, 

 when you die, he dies of grief on your grave! 



POULTRY. 



THE COCHIN-CHINA FOWL. 



BY JOHN BAILY. 



In treating of Cochin-china fowls, I ap- 

 proach them with diffidence, knowing how 

 many different opinions there are, and with 

 what tenacity they are held. It will be neces- 

 sary to go back some years, in order to get at 

 the root of the erroneous ideas afloat with 

 respect to them; and to discover how it is 

 that, while other fowls have their admitted 

 points whereby they are distinguished ( and 

 which are allowed by all to be the standard 

 by which they may be judged ,) in these there 

 is such diversity of opinion. 



They were first possessed by Her Majesty, 

 and soon known as uncommon birds. Great 

 efforts were made to get possession of one of 

 them, or even of an egg. Many were suc- 

 cessful in the latter, and the produce, whether 

 cock or pullet, was mated to anything that 

 seemed to resemble it. Thus, the Cochin- 

 china cocks found often a Dorking partner ; 

 and the Cochin-china hen a Malay mate. 

 These have been bred, and bred again, during 

 the first four or five years of the demand ; 

 and at each breeding the quantity of pure 

 blood has been increased by the thorough- 

 bred partner in the first instance being mated 

 with his or her own progeny, till at last the 

 cross had become only a stain, and this so 

 slight as to be imperceptible, except to any 

 one who has studied them closely. These 

 birds have been sold as pure, and the pur- 

 chasers finding that from them they get some 

 clean legged, and some five-clawed, believed 

 such to be correct specimens. But it is an 

 undoubted fact, that a cross is never to be de- 

 pended upon ; and that just when it is expec- 

 ted all the impure blood is got rid of, it re- 

 appears in the extra claw of the Dorking, and in 

 the peculiar head and clean leg of the Malay. 



This is not all. When it was found there was 

 a ready sale at large prices for Cochin-china 

 fowls, every captain trading to that country 

 was loaded with commissions to bring some 

 home ; and now, when a motley and mongrel 

 group is condemned, the owner very often 

 meets you by saying " t\\ey must be pure, for 

 they are imported birds. " This may be 

 quite true ; but they are not the Cochin-china 

 fowls appreciated in England. To get those, 

 the party bringing them over should be a 



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