718 
Poultry at the Norwich Show. 
fine in flesh, carrying it in the right place. The weight of a 
fair-sized cock is 7^ pounds, and that of a hen 5i pounds. 
^linorcas are perhaps the most valuable of all our laying 
breeds. These have been developed most largely in Devon 
and Cornwall, whence their progenitors were probably taken 
direct from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. They have 
of late years come wonderfully forward, and having all the 
qualities enumerated as belonging to the Andalusian, and being 
also hardier, they can be recommended to all who wish for 
layers — in which respect they are extraordinarily prolific. Thev 
are black in plumage, have a large comb, a sweeping tail, and 
are about the same size as the Andalusian. Eleven pens were 
exhibited at Norwich, of which only three were chickens. For 
practical purposes I thought that the third-prize lot in the Adult 
Class were the best. These were owned by ^Ir. Henry Abbott, 
a Norfolk farmer. Mr. William Snell's winning pen were a 
fine lot, and also the birds in the reserve pen owned by 
Mr. L'Estrange. In the Chicken Class, Mr. Dominy's winners 
were decidedly the best ; but those shown by Mr. Henry 
Abbott, to which the second prize was given, were a fine well- 
advanced useful-looking lot. 
Leghorns also came out very well, and there were fourteen 
entries in the two classes, of which only one was absent. Here, 
strange to say, the chickens were the most numerous. There are 
two varieties of Leghorns commonly kept in this country, but 
in America and Denmark others have been introduced. These 
two are the Whites and the Browns, and at INorwich the exhibits 
were pretty evenly divided between the two. The best lot in 
the Adult Class was the second-prize Whites, owned by Mr. John 
Berry, and the reserve lot were also nice Whites, though some- 
what small, Mr. Bradbury's Brown Chickens, which won the 
first prize, were capital, and Mr. Berry's second-prize W hites 
were also very good. Leghorns cannot be called quite so good 
as either the Minorca or the Andalusian, but only because the 
egg laid is smaller. The quantity produced is quite as great, 
if not greater. Of the two varieties the Whites lay the larger 
egg, and are preferred by many to the Browns on that account. 
They are hardy, of a medium size — I should prefer to see them 
larger— and the flesh is fair. Where the object is to produce 
eggs for the market or home consumption, any of the three 
varieties of Spanish fowls will be found to meet the needs, 
whether they are kept pure or crossed. 
Of all varieties of laying fowls the Hamburghs are the most 
prolific, but the eggs have the very decided weakness of being 
small, too small for market purposes. The I'lacks are the best 
in this respect, and are less of a fancy fowl than are the other 
