JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
306 
good points of both. This method may under some circumstances 
be worth a trial, but we should only be inclined to resort to it 
where no other was available. 
Partly, then, from a belief that it is only by permanent mating 
that the best results possible from an alliance can be obtained, 
and partly upon the more practical ground that it is well to make 
the most of a successful hit, we recommend that a suitable alliance 
should not be disturbed. 
Another matter upon which there has been much discussion 
may also be mentioned—namely, the effect of the imagination or 
the visual impressions of the parent upon the offspring. Suffi¬ 
cient evidence has been adduced in favour of the theory that the 
close proximity to the hen of birds of a very different colour to 
her own may affect the colour of the chicks, to make it worthy of 
the attention of the breeder to take care that all risk of such 
impressions be avoided. If birds of very different colours are 
running next each other it will be well, therefore, that the fence 
between them be of such a character that they cannot see each 
other. 
(To be continued.) 
BUFF COCHINS. 
I HAVE been much interested in the discussion which has 
recently been going on in your columns as to the points of the 
Dorking. Such discussions do much to clear the ground of doubt¬ 
ful matter and to give uniformity to the decisions of the judges. 
Personally I am not concerned with the Dorking, my breed beiug 
the Buff Cochin. I should like to see recorded in your columns 
the opinions of leading Cochin fanciers upon a point which a few 
seasons back gave rise to much uncertainty, and which even now 
is by no means clearly settled—namely, Are tricolored Buff cocks 
to be admitted to the prize list ? 
A year or two ago a very fine bird of the tricolored sort 
experienced great vicissitudes of fortune. At several shows he 
stood at the head of the list, while at others he was amongst the 
unnoticed crowd. His merits as a Cochin were undoubted, but 
the three colours threw him out with some judges. Now, whilst 
admitting the striking effect produced by the contrast of colour, I 
am inclined to think that the judges who pass over birds of this 
type are in the right. My experience has been that such birds do 
not breed evenly coloured pullets, and I think that the uniformity 
of colour which is admittedly indispensable in the one sex should 
be equally insisted upon in regard to the other. Perhaps some of 
your readers will give us the benefit of their ideas upon this 
subject.— Buff. 
CROSS-BRED POULTRY. 
This is a matter about which I should be glad of information 
as the results of one or two experiments have not been satis¬ 
factory. Here in Mid-Sussex every cottager’s wife rears chickens 
for market in large numbers, and all of them are cross-bred. 
The hens used originally were those termed Sussex, not unlike 
the Dorking in their handsome shapely bodies and short legs. 
Many of the chickens revert to the original type now, while others 
develope greater length of limb owing to the cock almost in¬ 
variably being of the Brahma type and not unfrequently pure 
Brahma ; for weighty birds are required for market, and such 
are undoubtedly the result of this popular Sussex cross. A ready 
sale is always found for them, the early spring broods being the 
most profitable, poultry dealers making long rounds in search of 
them, and giving 8s. a couple at the cottage door for chickens 
that are subsequently fattened for market by the dealer. 
Having to provide and maintain an abundant and regular 
supply of chickens for table, this local breed was adopted by me 
with confidence, and no difficulty was experienced in rearing and 
fattening them. The chickens were large, heavy, and remarkable 
for an excess of fat as they attain to full growth, but the older 
ones were so strongly objected to upon the score of coarseness 
that I resolved to try a cross with a Game cock and Dorking hens. 
I had heard the cross highly commended as producing chickens 
of that fine quality of flesh and delicacy of flavour so dear to the 
palate of a connoisseur. The result was the reverse of satisfactory, 
for the chickens proved so delicate in constitution that a large 
per-centage of every brood were lost soon after hatching, and the 
survivors grew so slowly and were at best so undersized that the 
cockerels were crowing away lustily before they were big enough 
for table, and at their best they were miserable starvelings in 
comparison to the noble Brahma-Sussex chicks. The Game 
cock was a splendid fellow, but he came to an untimely end, 
and the whole of his progeny were got rid of. He was replaced by 
a fine Dorking cockerel two or three months ago, and from the 
appeaiance of the early broods of Dorking chickens I think the 
[ April 14, 1881. 
change will answer. Meanwhile care has been taken to establish 
enough of the Brahma-Sussex fowls in another yard to ensure 
a supply of chickens, and I cordially commend them to the 
notice of all who require large hardy chickens and are not very 
critical about points of delicacy and flavour in the flesh, which is 
certainly tender enough. 
I may add that we do not depend upon any of the fowls named 
for the egg supply, a considerable number of Silver-spangled 
Hamburghs being kept solely for that purpose, and especial care 
is taken to rear enough pullets of the Hamburghs early to afford a 
supply of eggs in winter when the old hens cease laying.— 
Edward Luckhurst. 
HOMING PIGEONS. 
Mr. Huie’s letter in your last issue cannot fail to be interest¬ 
ing to every Pigeon fancier. The fact which he relates so cir¬ 
cumstantially that there seems no possibility of there being 
mistake in it, of an untrained Pigeon having flown from Ledbury 
to Scotland, can but lead one to conclude that there is something 
more than sight which directs the flight of the Homing Pigeon. 
I do not pretend to be experienced in this race ; still several facts 
which have come under my notice in the case of various Pigeons 
have long inclined me to believe that instinct—I do not mean 
the highly developed instinct of the migratory bird, but a sense 
apart from sight and unexplainable from experience—does aid 
the flight of Pigeons. I will relate one case, by no means carry¬ 
ing the strong proof of that given by Mr. Huie, but still pre¬ 
sumably favouring the instinct theory. I had as a boy some 
indifferent dark blue Fantails, the hen an old favourite, the cock 
young. I gave them to a servant to send away and thought no 
more about them ; five weeks afterwards I found the hen quietly 
feeding in her old quarters. I inquired where they had been 
sent, and found that they had gone to the east of London, about 
eighteen or twenty miles from where we lived in West Middlesex. 
They were confined for five weeks,- but accidentally one day the 
hen escaped, and by noon the next day we found her in her old 
quarters ; she had within a few hours crossed the great city and 
reached her old home fourteen miles beyond it. The bird had 
been given to me, and as a nestling had never been taken in her 
life off our premises ; and as every fancier knows Fantails are not 
high and experimental flyers, so it seems next to impossible that 
she could ever have been at a height to see twenty miles. Such 
an instance is of course only a small gain in cumulative proof, 
but two or three like that given by Mr. Huie would go far to 
establish a fact contrary to the almost universal belief of fanciers. 
—O. E. Cresswell. 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Illustrated Poultry Book (F. G .).—“ The Illustrated Book of Poultry,” 
published by Cassell, Petter, Galpin, & Co. It can be obtained in fifty 6 d. parts, 
or bound, price 31.?. 6<i. 
Uncooked Rice as Food for Chickens (Idem ).—Uncooked rice is 
very bad for young chickens, partly because upon becoming moist it swells 
greatly, and partly because there is so little real nourishment in rice. We only 
use rice occasionally as a check to any tendency to diarrhoea, and it should for 
this purpose be thoroughly boiled in milk. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUARE,LONDON. 
Lafc. 51° 32'40” N.; Long. 0° 8'0" W.; Altitude.lll feet. 
date. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
Rain. 
1 
1881. 
April. 
Barome¬ 
ter at 32° 
and Sea 
Level 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
Temp, of 
Soil at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass. 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
Sun. 3 
30.032 
39.2 
33.3 
N.E. 
42.0 
46.4 
32.0 
100.9 
27.4 
— 
Mon. 4 
80.026 
41.3 
35.1 
N.E. 
41.6 
50.4 
28.3 
106.8 
28 8 
— 
Tues. 5 
29.806 
41.6 
36.6 
N.E. 
41.7 
52.5 
31.8 
113.3 
27.3 
— 
Wed. 6 
29.795 
42.5 
37.8 
K. 
42.1 
52 7 
35.1 
112.8 
31.6 
— 
Thurs. 7 
30.i '28 
44.7 
39.0 
N.F. 
42.1; 
52.4 
31.7 
106.0 
27.2 
— 
Friday 8 
30.068 
46.5 
42.2 
N.E. 
42.8 
53.0 
30.5 
107.4 
26.0 
— 
Satur. 9 
30.067 
46.1 
42.4 
E. 
43.3 
56.6 
36.7 
102.4 
31.7 
— 
Means. 
29.975 
43.1 
38.1 
42.3 
52.0 
32.3 
107.1 
27.9 
— 
REMARKS. 
3rd.—Very dry, cold, windy, and dusty. 
4th.—Squally cold winds ; fine and very bright sunshine. 
5th.—Very fine, slightly warmer, bright hot sunshine. 
6th —Bright and fine, much wind and dust; moonlight night. 
7th.—Fine, bright, and cold ; clear moonlight night. 
8th.—Fine and bright, still windy and dusty, rather more cloud. 
9th.—Dry and fine, but more cloud than on previous days. 
The dry east winds have prevailed throughout the week, but with less violence. 
The temperature is still below the average and the air very dry.—G. J. Symons. 
