364 
head, the colour being sutable with the colour of the 
j feathers on his head ; his rnaine of neck-feathers would he 
j very long, bright and shining, covering from his head to his 
! shoulders; his legs streight, and of a strong beame, with 
! large long spurres, sharpe, and a little bending, and the 
| colour blacke, yellow, or blewish, his clawes short, strong, 
and well wrinckled; his taile long, and covering his body 
very closely; and for the generall colour of the dung-hill 
cocke, it would be red, for that is medicinall, and oft used in 
! oullisses and restoratives, This cocke. should be valiant 
j within his owne walke, and if he be a little knavish, he is so 
j much the better; he would be oft crowing, and busie in 
scratching the earth to find out wormes, and other food for 
! his hens. 
i “ Of the Hen, her choice and shape. —Now for the hen, if 
| she be a good one, shee should not differ much from the 
I nature of the cocke, but be valiant, vigilant, and laborious 
| both for her selfe and her chickens. In shape, the biggest 
| and largest are the best, every proportion answering these 
! before described of the cocke, only instead of her combe, 
shee should have upon her crowne a high thicke tuft of 
feathers; to have many and strong claws is good, but to 
want hinder claws is better, for they oft break the eggs, and 
such hens sometimes prove unnaturall; it is not good to 
cliuse a crowing hen, for they are neither good breeders, 
nor good laiers. If you chuse Hens to sit, chuse the elder, 
for they be constant, and will sit out their times, and if you 
will chuse hens to lay, chuse the youngest, for they are lusty 
and prone to the act of ingendring, but for neither purpose 
chuse a fat hen, for if you set her, she will forsake her nest, 
and if you keepe her to lay, she will lay her eggs without 
shells. Besides, a fat hen will waxe slothfull, and neither 
delight in the one nor in the other act of nature, such hens 
then are ever fitter for the dish than the hen-house. 
“ Of Setting Hens. —The best time to set hens, to have 
the best, largest, and most kindly chickens, is in February, 
in the increase of the moone, so that she may hatch or dis¬ 
close her chickens in the increase of the next new moone, 
being in March, for one brood of March chickens is worth 
three broods of any other; you may set liens from March 
till October, and have good chickens, but not after by any 
meanes, for the winter is a great enemy to their breeding. 
A hen doth sit twenty-one daies .just, and then hatobeth, 
but peahens, turkies, geese, ducks, and other water-fowle 
sit thirty ; so that if you set your hen, as you may doe upon 
any of their eggs, you must set her upon them nine daies 
before you set her upon her owne. A hen will cover nine- 
teene eggs well, and that is the most in true rule, she should 
cover, but upon what number soever you set her, let it be 
odde, for so the eggs will lie round, close, and in even pro 
portion together. It is good when you lay your eggs first 
under your hens, to marke the upper side of them, aud 
then to watch the hen, to see if she busie her selfe to turne 
them from the one side to the other, which if you finde she 
doth not, then when she riseth from her eggs, to feed or 
bathe her selfe, you must supply that office, and turne every 
egg your selfe, and esteeme your hen of so much the lesse 
reckoning for the use of breeding; be sure that the eggs 
which you lay under her, be new and sound, whieh you may 
know by then’ lieavinesse, fulnesse, and cleerenesse, if you 
hold them up betwixt the sun and your eye-sight; you must 
by no meanes, at any time raise your heu from her nest, for 
that will make her utterly forsake it. 
“ Choice of Eggs. —Now, for helping a hen to hatch her 
eggs, or doing that which should be her office, it is un¬ 
necessary, and shall be much better to be forborne than any 
way used ; or to make doubt of bringing forth, or to thinke 
the henne sitteth too long (as many foolish curious house¬ 
wives doe) if you be sure you set her upon sound eggs, 
is frivolous, but if you set her upon unsound eggs, then 
blame yourselfe, both of the losse and injury done to the 
hen in her losse of labour. A hen will be a good sitter from 
the second yeere of her laying, to the fifth, but hardly any 
longer; you shall observe, ever when your hen riseth from 
her nest, to have meate and water ready for her, lest straying 
too farre to seeke her food, she let her eggs code too much, 
which is very hurtfull. In her absence you shall stirre up 
the straw of her nest, and make it soft and handsome, and 
lay the eggs in order, as she left them : doe not in the 
election of your eggs choose those which are monstrous 
September 9. 
great, for they many times have two yolkes, and though 
some write, that such eggs will bring out two chickens, yet , 
they are deceived, for if they bring forth two, they are com- I 
monly most abortive and monstrous. To perfume the neast 
with brimstone is good, but with rosemary is much better. I 
To set lions in the winter time in stoves or ovens, is of no 
use with us in England, and though they may by that means 
bring forth, yet will the chickens be never good nor profit¬ 
able, but like the planting of lemon and pomegranate-trees, 
the fruit will come a great deale short of the charges. When 
your hen at any time is absent from her neast, you must 
have great care, to see that the cocke come not to sit upon 
the eggs (as ho will offer to doe), for he will endanger to 
breake them, and make her love her neast worse. 
“ Of Chickens .—As soone as your chickens be hatch’d, if 
any be weaker than other, you shall lap them in wooll, and 
let them have the aire of the fire, and it will strengthen 
them; to perfume them with a little rosemary, is very 
wholsome also ; and thus you may in a sive keepe the first 
hatcht chickens, till the rest be disclosed (for chickens 
would have no meate for two daies), and some shells being 
harder than other, they will take so much distance of time 
in opening: yet unlcsse the chickens be weake, or the hen 
rude, it is not amisse to let them alone under her, for shee 
will nourish them most kindly : after two daies is past, the 
first meate you give them should be very small oate-meale, 
some dry, and some steep’d in milke, or else fine wheat- 
bread crums, and after they have got strength, then curds, 
cheese-parings, white-bread crusts soak’d in milke or drinke ; 
barley-meale or ■wheat-bread scalded, or any such like soft 
meate that is small, and will easily be divided. It is good to 
keepe chickes one fortnight in the house, and after to suffer 
them to goe abroad with the hen to worme, for that is very 
wholesome ; to chop greene chives amongst your chickens 
meate will preserve them from the rie, and other diseases 
in the head; neither must you at any time let your chickens 
want water, for if they be forc’d to drink in puddles, it will 
breed the pip : also, to feed upon tares, darnell, or cockle, is 
very dangerous fur young chickens." 
FORSYTH MSS. 
At page 329 we mentioned that our first notice of Mr. 
Paterson in these MSS. is one of his letters dated from 
the Cape of Good Plope, in 1781 ; but he had been 
residing at that settlement for several years previously. 
This appears from the fact that, in 1789, being then 
still a lieutenant, he published A Narrative of four 
journeys into the country of the Hottentots and Caffraria 
in 177 7-78, and 79. Ho states that he visited these 
districts in company with Captain Gordon, who had 
previously travelled over part of the same country, and 
had a knowledge of the Hottentot language. This 
gentleman named one of the inlets on the coast Pater¬ 
sons Bay, in commemoration of his companion. The 
volume is a plain narrative of facts, not only specially 
interesting just now on account of its description of the 
Caffres, but from containing information aud drawings 
connected with its botany, which modern naturalists 
would do w’ell to notice aud acknowledge. Among the 
drawings, all of which are coloured, arc Amaryllis dis- 
ticha (now Brunsvigia distieha), the bulb of which is 
used by the natives for poisoning their arrows, and the 
leaves of which endanger the lives of the cattle which 
delight to feed upon them; Aloe dichotoma, or Quiver- 
tree, which cover the hills iu the district of Small 
Nimqua; Hermannia; Stapelia; Euphorbia, “ supposed 
to be the strongest vegetable poison in Africa;” “ a new 
species of Geranium," with white, crimson-blotched 
petals, from the banks of Sand River; Geranium spi- 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
