348 
The Illustrated Booic of Poultry. 
Its invention, lie says, “ occurred in this wise. Being obliged, for exhibition purposes, to 
wash and trim my biids faces pretty often, which entailed the time and expense of a boy or other 
assistant, who not only witnessed all that took place, exporting all my little secrets to quarters they 
weie nevei intended to reach, but whose interest in the performance would often make him forget 
he w as holding a living thing, till a sudden flap and kick gave notice of freedom, and off the bird 
w ent, to be re-caught before the operation could be finished ; I found all this a great annoyance 
and loss of time, and determined, if possible, to stop it. I then tried the bird in my lap, with the 
breast bone between my knees and the legs down between my own; but this at first was an utter 
failure, foi off it went at a bound, upsetting all my little apparatus of cups, basins, sponges, &c. I 
thought that was not much improvement, and would not do ; so I re-caught the young gentleman 
and quietly put him back as before, but this time passing my handkerchief over his back and 
round my own thighs, tying the two ends underneath. This was a perfect success ; the bird was 
comfortable, and never once evinced a desire to move ; and all went on swimmingly until his toilet 
was just completed, and only wanted the finishing touch of the powder-puff, \ which I had left out of 
reach ; when my attempt to obtain it proved with some force that I was as helpless as the bird, 
both of us being bound together. 
“ Thus I was led to invent what I called a cock-saddle, of which a side view with the bird on if 
is shown in Fig. 79, and a plan in Fig. 80. It is simply made as follows : — Take a piece of inch 
deal, five inches wide and about two feet long. About the middle of each edge cut with a saw at 
right angles, to the depth of one inch and a half ; and five inches from this direct the saw diagonally 
to the bottom of your preceding cuts, thus taking out of each edge the triangular notches A B 
in Fig. 80, which are for the bird’s legs to hang down in, similar to a saddle without stirrups. 
Immediately behind the rectangular cuts, and entirely across the board, nail an oval pad — • 
horsehair in leather or calico will do — about three inches in height, four or five inches in width, and 
