Points of the Black Bantam. 
47 ' 
“ The car-lobes being one of the principal points in this breed, great care is necessary to get 
and keep them perfectly white. Of course you cannot expect to get good lobes unless the bitd 
is well bred, but the very best lobes will be soon spoiled by neglect, that is, by allowing the bird 
full liberty in all weathers. The sun, cold cutting winds, or frost will all tend to discolour or shrivel 
up the lobe. On the other hand, by keeping a bird up in a sheltered pen, an indifferent lobe can 
be greatly improved. 
“ In selecting birds for exhibition, judgment and experience are required. If I had two cocks ; 
one with very good lobes, plumage, and style, but with an indifferent comb, and one with good comb 
and lobes, but inferior plumage and style, I should select the former. Nothing can compensate 
for any one point being very bad ; but, on the other hand, a perfect bird is very rare (I have never 
seen one to come up to my idea of perfection), and those must be chosen which show the greatest 
general excellence, and look best in a pen. 
“ The legs of all the birds in a pen must of course match in colour, and if the pen consist of 
two hens, comb, size, &c., in the pair must be as near alike as possible. The lobes, comb, legs, 
and plumage, if dirty, must be carefully washed, and the birds fed on some soft food before sending 
off to a show. Good-sized round baskets, well lined with calico or other material, are requisite : the 
plumage is often spoiled by the baskets being too small or square. In conclusion, I would say to 
beginners, Do not expect to carry everything before you at the commencement, and do not be 
disappointed or disgusted at non-success. Great judgment, experience, patience, and perseverance, 
are the elements of, and the lack of either fatal to, success.” 
A difference of opinion will not fail to be observed between Mr. Hutton and Mr. Cambridge 
on the question of the proper shape for Black Bantams, one preferring the identical “ gamey ” style 
which the other dislikes. This difference is undoubtedly real, and the point is one on which, like 
many others, various opinions may be legitimately held ; but we must also remark that it is not 
so great as might at first sight appear. What Mr. Hutton chiefly means to object to are evidently 
the long leg and whip-tail of the Game. What Mr. Cambridge chiefly dislikes is the w r ing pointed 
nearly to the ground, and an immense fanned tail carried upright or over the back. We have seen 
birds which we know to have been greatly admired by both breeders ; and the type presented by 
Mr. Serjeantson’s beautiful pair of Black Hamburghs, shown in Plate X, with wings carried as there 
shown, legs of harmonious medium length, and a sweeping, but not heavy, sickled tail, would 
certainly meet with the approbation of all parties. For ourselves, we consider this Hamburgh 
o 
type in all points the most pleasing, and in our view the most correct ; and this opinion does not 
greatly differ from that of Mr. Hewitt, who has already so kindly given his views on various kindred 
points of judging as well as in the present case. “ A really good Black Bantam,” he writes, “ should 
possess, size only excepted, the general characteristics of the Black Hamburgh. This Bantam, 
however, has its own peculiar pertness and expression of determined familiarity. The calm, reliant 
courage of the Game Bantam is out of place in the Black one, the latter being the very embodiment 
of foppery, self-esteem, and an unconquerable desire to make friends at all hazards. Pride and 
vanity are its marked characters ; and it is this impudence, combined with its natty mincing gait, 
that causes it to be generally an object of interest to lovers of poultry. A long, well-drooping 
sickle-feather, as in the Hamburghs, is a most important desideratum.” 
Besides the breed described in the foregoing pages, there is a totally distinct variety of quite 
different characteristics, known as the Black Booted Bantam, of squat shape, and adorned with 
very long feather on the shanks. These Bantams are probably more or less remotely allied to 
the subjects of the next section, which have a great deal in common with them, in general shape 
as well as leg-feather. They resemble in all but colour the White Booted Bantams described on 
