Treatment of Spanish before Exhibition. 
34 7 
many opportunities of seeing the fowls under all circumstances, and of observing how they were 
managed. A grass-run was always preferred where it could be had, but the majority of the birds 
were kept in confinement, and generally under cover during severe weather, the houses being boarded 
up for two or three feet in front, so as to keep off cold winds. In these circumstances they were 
nearly always in tolerable show condition, except when moulting, which was a very slow process ; 
but all the Bristol fanciers we were acquainted with used to keep their birds in a “ dark house ” for 
about a week before showing. These places were not absolutely dark, but enough of what might be 
called “ twilight ” was allowed through a small window to enable the birds to see their food and 
water, walk about, and fly up to their roosts. In the best of these dark houses there were pens 
about seven feet from front to back, by four feet wide, the partitions being boarded up about four 
feet high, and netted thence to the roof, so that the whole was well-ventilated and airy. Con- 
finement in such dark pens has a great effect, not only upon the faces, but also on the plumage of 
the birds, making it clean and glossy ; and we never remember seeing the combs blanched as 
described by Mr. Teebay, unless the darkening had been much too long continued, or overdone, or 
the birds had been so closely penned as to be unable to move about. Occasionally they would be 
let out for half-an-hour on a grass-plot if the weather was dull and mild, but never in the sun 
“ while a show was on.” Heat was rarely used except in really cold weather, being found to cause 
flabbiness in the comb, and to endanger the health of the birds on their journey afterwards. 
Few exhibitors showed their birds in better condition than Mr. Roue (who has since died, 
but whose stock founded one of the best of the last Bristol strains), and wo found no difficulty in 
obtaining from him at any time such information as we desired. He always found it best to feed 
for exhibitions chiefly on barley-meal and bread and milk, with only a small portion of whole corn, 
the bread and milk being found to “ suit the faces ” well ; and he always made a great point 
of accustoming the birds to small pens, such as those in which they would have to be shown. 
We have already treated generally of this matter ; but in the case of Spanish it is peculiarly 
necessary, as birds unused to the confinement are always poking their heads between the bars 
or wires when penned, and, by getting rust or dirt on their faces, spoiling their chances in a close 
competition, the least dirt showing very disadvantageous^ on the pure white of the face. 
The faces have in the main to be “ bred up to but in every fowl it is necessary to go over the 
whole carefully, and pluck out with fine tweezers all the “ fluff,” or small hairy feathers, which are more 
or less dotted over the surface. This is done by seizing each hair as close to the skin as possible, 
and plucking it out with a sudden jerk. The white then shows up well, and when the operation 
is completed the whole is carefully and gently washed with soap and lukewarm water, using for the 
purpose a very soft sponge. Every man washed his birds in his own way ; but Mr. Roue himself 
constructed a saddle on which the birds were strapped down, and which is likely to be so generally 
useful in the case of many other varieties beside Spanish, that we have much pleasure in giving the 
following description and representation of it, from notes and drawings which the inventor has 
kindly sent us. 
the neighbourhood followed his example, and when Mr. Rake finally retired his stock was eagerly bought, the best portion of it 
remaining in the city. After him Mr. Roue bred birds which perhaps have never been excelled ; and the names of Messrs. Lane, 
Parsley, Jones, Hyde, and others, are or have been all well-known as winners in Spanish classes. At the Bristol Show in 1867, the 
judges distinguished four pens in the catalogue (all exhibited by different Bristol amateurs) as “the four best pens of Spanish ever 
seen together .” The foundation of all these Bristol strains, however, was in the excellent stock already referred to ; and we were 
interested to observe that only a few years ago, at the sale on retirement of another breeder (we think in 1869), “an old Rake 
hen ” — if we may apply such a term to the gentler sex — was bought apparently for the egg or two she might possibly lay, since there 
could be little probability of such an event in the case of a fowl which could hardly have been less than ten or twelve years old. 
Since 1871 Bristol has not stood so high, and at present hardly any are exhibited from the old city. 
