April 29. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
73 
is also very fruitful. The most rough-footed are the most 
esteemed. 
English Tumbler Pigeon (Columba gyratrix Britannica). 
—This is one of the smallest pigeons we know. It differs 
from the preceding in its size, which is almost one third 
smaller, also in its shorter and fine beak, marked on the 
extremity of the upper mandible with a black spot (in the 
streaked tumbler), or having all the mandible black (in the 
variety which lias the plumage of this colour). Its strong 
and flat head, supported by a thin and graceful neck, rather 
resembles a partridge. Some of these pigeons are black, 
red, streaked with black, or a dun colour, with a more lively 
coloured breast. These birds are more rough-footed than 
the Mountebank Tumbler, and equally fruitful. 
When these charming pigeons are crossed with species 
proportionable to their size, they produce very pretty 
mixtures; but the young ones of this cross never resemble 
cither their parents or their kind. 
Savoyard Tumbler Pigeon (Columbagyratrix sabanda ).— 
It resembles the common earner in its form; but its 
plumage is streaked, or rather laced over with white, grey, 
fawn, and black. It has a pearled eye, but of a sandy-red. 
It is very productive. 
(To be continued.) 
HOW TO OBTAIN THE LARGEST AMOUNT 
OF HONEY. 
I am happy to see that the apiarian is by no means for¬ 
gotten in your instructive pages—so much so, that though I 
have aspired to that distinction these fifteen years and more, 
and added to my own observations the learning and research 
of many others, yet I confess great obligation to your cor¬ 
respondents. It’ the communication of a portion of the 
result of my own experience, imparted as a tribute of grati¬ 
tude for these benefits, shall be deemed worthy a place in 
your columns, here it is at your service. 
Let the problem be, how to obtain the largest amount of 
honey in any one year from a colony of bees, with the small¬ 
est amount of injury to the hive. Your correspondent, 
“ A Country Curate,” would say, let them swarm, and take 
the proceeds of the swarm at harvest-time. This may be 
well, although my experience does not tally with his about 
the more prolific character of the older stocks. Be this 
as it may (for I am not contending with so able a master), 
still I presume no one will repent giving the following plan 
a trial:— 
Fig. 1 (Ground Plan). Back. 
A. the hive. 
B. the box. 
C. the tunnel (the horizontal lines 
mark the subterranean part). 
D. bottom hoard. 
d. d. the exits of the tunnel. 
E. common entrance (subterranean 
part shewn by dots) communi¬ 
cating with the tunnel (C). 
/. /. slides for interrupting the 
communication by closing d. d. 
g. the top of the tunnel (C) move- 
able for cleaning. 
Fig. 2 
Moveable top of box, the holes marked by the circles. 
First of all, prepare a solid bottom board 2 niches thick, 
2ft. Din. long, and 1ft. 5in. in breadth. In the centre of 
this let a passage be hollowed out, so that two adjacent 
hives may have a sort of tunnelled communication between 
them. This hollow passage is to be covered with a fiat 
moveable roof, kept level with the surface, so that all may 
be level except where the passage (C) makes its debut into 
each hive. A means must be contrived by a slip of tin, or 
otherwise, as suggested in the figure (/./.), for cutting short 
the communication, which must be kept closed at certain 
times. Then, having selected a populous hive of last year’s 
swarming, substitute one end of this prepared board for its . 
former bottom board, and on the other end place a wooden 
box, open at top and bottom, 11 inches square in the clear, 
and 9 inches high, with an observation window at one side ; 
cover it with a thin square board, fitting closely, yet un¬ 
attached, pierced with sets of holes for the free passage of 
the bees into any hive or glasses that may stand above, and 
furnished with a good piece of guide-comb. 
All this should be ready early in May, and be protected from 
the weather till the bees in the hive (not yet allowed to pass 
into the adjacent box) appear to be preparing for a migration, 
at which time take a favourable opportunity at eventide, when 
the bees are all at home, to raise the hive carefully from its 
place, and lift it on the square board at the top of the 
adjacent box. Stop the entrance of the hive, and move the 
bottom board a little to one side, so that the entrance of the 
box may just occupy the position of the former entrance, lest 
the bees should lose their way. The bees next day will not 
hesitate to go out and in through the box, and very shortly, 
instead of swarming, they will commence operations therein, 
which they will seldom do without this arrangement, which 
I consider my “ chef d'oeuvre." 
When they have evidently done this, and built their combs 
some distance down, no time must be lost, but the hive must 
be shifted back to its old place, and the holes thus left ex¬ 
posed at the top of the box must be carefully covered (this 
I generally do with halfpence). The communication in the 
tunnel must now be opened, that the bees may pass to either 
hive, or from one to the other, ad libitum. 
I have a contrivance, by-the-by, on my bottom board for a 
common entrance, communicating with the centre of the 
tunnel. The other entrances (viz., of the hive and box 
respectively) I close or leave open according to circum¬ 
stances, always closing them, however, at first, to get them 
accustomed to the common entrance. If you have been 
alert, your queen will not have entered the box before this 
removal; if otherwise, you have been so far unsuccessful, 
and must work your glasses ; but if she have not, she is not 
likely to come now through the subterranean tunnel, parti¬ 
cularly if you keep the box sufficiently cool (which there 
are varieties of ways of doing) before they separate from the 
parent hive. In a good season the bees will fill two such 
boxes as this, besides a glass or two on the top of the parent 
hive, and as many glasses as you please on the board above 
the box, and your parent hive will remain in “ statu quo." 
Should any further information be required on tliis sub¬ 
ject, I shall be happy to supply it in reply to any enquiries.— 
A Country Yicar. 
NATURALIZATION OF FOREIGN SONG-BIRDS. 
I rejoice to see the pages of The Cottage Gardener 
diversified by occasional observations on our favourite songs¬ 
ters of the woods. The preservation and encouragement 
of these is an object of great importance to every lover of 
nature, who must see with regret, if not the total destruction, 
yet the increasing rarity of many species of interesting 
birds formerly common in this country. Where we have 
introduced a new variety, it has hitherto usually had a 
reference solely to our game preserves. Our gardens and 
woods are annually enriched by the exotic plants and trees 
of all climes; cannot we go a step farther, and naturalise 
among us some of the songsters of other countries ? Ex¬ 
perience has shewn that canary birds may, with the returning 
spring, be let loose in pleasure grounds, where they will 
breed readily in fruit trees and shrubs, disporting and carol¬ 
ling with exquisite effect on a lawn, or in a shrubbery. But 
this liberty with the canary extends only to the warm 
months, after which the birds and their young are glad to 
