28 
The Illustrated Book of Poultry. 
poultry, it is true , but these men have spent their lives in studying the management of fowls, 
and what they find best for birds worth a score of pounds each will also be best for commoner 
towls, such as can be bought for a few shillings. Therefore, we repeat, let the breakfast be mixed 
with boiling water, and always given warm. 
How the soft meat is given will depend on circumstances. Supposing a yard to be tolerably 
ary and clean, and that the proprietor or his servant can spend a few minutes over the fowls, it will 
be best to scatter it freely over the ground. Properly mixed, very little dust or dirt will adhere 
to it, and every bird will get its share. But if the weather be very wet this will hardly do, neither 
will it if the birds are confined in the shed, floored as this is with loose dust or sand. In such 
cases any common dish will do to put the food in, the quantity which the fowls will eat with 
proper appetite having been found by previous observation. A large garden saucer will answer ; 
but if a dish can be procured with straight sides (as in the sketch Fig. u) it will be better, as the 
fowls cannot then turn it over when they step on the edges, as they are apt to do with a dish 
wider at the top than the bottom : they cannot also rake the food out so readily with their 
beaks. The feeding “ cages ” usually sold are too heavy, cumbersome, and expensive for general 
use ; but some years ago we gave in the “ Practical Poultry Keeper ” the annexed engraving of a 
loose, light cover we had contrived, of zinc or tin and wire, for preventing the fowls from walking 
upon or scratching earth into their food, which has since been manufactured for general use, 
Fig. II. Fig. 12. 
and will be found useful where they have to be altogether confined and fed upon a floor of dry 
rubbish, but for fowls fed with proper appetite in open yards, will not be needed. The front 
wires should be about eight inches in height. 
The best and most generally useful vessel for feeding poultry is one we first saw in the yard 
of Mr. E. Jones, the celebrated Spanish breeder of Bristol, England, and was, we believe, his own 
contrivance ; so that we have always found it had to be specially made (which is readily done in 
quantities of a dozen) at the nearest pottery. These dishes are circular in shape, and of the section 
represented, thus presenting a saucer at both top and bottom, the size being about eight inches 
Fig. 13. 
For Water. 
across, and five inches deep. If the wide face be placed on the ground, the saucer with upright 
sides contains the soft food (which cannot be scratched or raked out), stands perfectly firm and 
steady even if perched upon, and is sufficiently raised to prevent dirt being scattered into the food. 
When turned the other way it forms a water-vessel, also raised from the ground, and which, from 
the slanting sides, does not touch the combs of Spanish or other large-combed breeds, for which the 
ordinary poultry-fountain is not suitable on account of the size of that appendage. 
