THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— June 10,1800. 195 
COCHINS versus HAMBURGHS. 
| I ttiank “ Silver-pencilled Hamburgh " for bis infor¬ 
mation and his courteous comments, and then would like, 
as courteously, to criticise his criticisms. First, I would 
state, that I neither had, nor have, any intention of main¬ 
taining either that Cochins always excel other breeds in 
productiveness, nor that my Cochins were more prolific 
than other people's. I only wished to show to persons in 
like situations to mine, that Cochins would furnish eggs more 
cheaply than would the neighbouring greengrocer. 
I am not a fowl fancier, but an egg consumer. As such, 
“Hamburgh's” birds, though they laid every day, would 
not suit me. I could not keep them within bounds without 
an outlay for wire fencing, which would go nigh to ruin me. 
Did I admire his pets ever so much, I could as soon institute 
a game preserve in my back yard as be a fancier of Pencilled 
Hamburghs. Besides, I question very much whether they 
would produce, in confinement, anything like the number 
of eggs which their admirer had from them in his good 
grass run, or which my birds gave me with their scanty 
accommodation. 
The comparison made by “ Pencilled Hamburgh,” in¬ 
teresting as it is, is not an exact one of the value of breed 
I over breed. Plis birds, with their good range in the open 
spring of 1850, cannot be set against mine, in narrow 
limits, during the unusually inclement season of 1855. Nor 
can the produce of four months only, test the value of a 
breed like the returns made over a whole year. 
If “Hamburgh ” writes, as 1 hope ho will do, a report of 
his four birds in January, 1857, I do not think he will show 
so great an advantage over my fowls. 
The supposition he makes that two only of my four birds 
were set (although a very natural one, from looking at my 
table), is not accurate. In fact, all four were set, hatched, 
and one (No. hi.) reared her chickens, beginning to lay 
when they were three weeks old. The other three hatched 
eggs belonging to friends, who took away the chickens 
when a day or two old. The mothers always began to lay 
again in about a fortnight. No. ii. and No. iv. were July 
chickens, and did not begin to lay at all until the end of 
January and the beginning of February. This, too, some¬ 
what diminished the sum total of the produce during 1855. 
I think “ Silver - pencilled Hamburgh” may consider 
himself very successful. I have never seen a record of the 
produce of four birds for four months which exceeded his. 
As his fowls began to lay so early in the year, they will 
probably cease earlier than usual. They will lose a good 
deal of ground when they are moulting in the autumn. 
Should he be able to tell us, next January, that his birds 
produced, in 1856, a larger average than 150 each, no one 
will read his statement with more interest than— Felix 
Rabbit. 
It is curious as an undesigned testimony to the goodness 
of the run enjoyed by his birds, that their food is stated 
to have been mainly boiled rice. Good ns rice is for adult 
fowls, they rarely lay well on it, unless richer food is largely 
admixed with it. With a wide range, the insects, roots, and, 
; perhaps, corn stacks, would make up the deficiency of the 
j rice, as food for laying fowls. “ Silver-pencilled Ham- 
i burgh’s ” birds must have had excellent quarters indeed to 
have laid so well upon rice diet. 
THE COLLARED TURTLE DOVE, COLUMBA 
RISORIA. 
French. German. 
| La Tourteiielle a Collier. Die Lachtaube. 
Although the Collared Turtle Dove is not a native of 
j this country, yet it is so well known, and has been bred 
here for so long a period, that to omit a description of it 
would leave the present series imperfect. 
They are supposed to come from Egypt; but there is a 
rather larger and lighter - coloured variety brought from 
China, and also a darker breed from Bengal, but neither of 
these are so common in this country as the first, which is 
usually kept and bred in cages, and frequently confused 
with, or mistaken for, the true Turtle, the summer visitant 
of our woods and fields. 
They are about the same size, though not quite so slenderly 
| made, as the common Turtle Dove ; but they differ greatly 
; from it in colour and voice. 
The beak is thin, long, dove-shaped, and of a dark horn 
colour; the irides a bright orange red; the feet blood red, 
and claws dark ; the general plumage is a soft stone drab, 
or pale fawn, being rather lighter on the throat and breast, 
and darker on the back. There is a trifling variation of 
shade in the sexes, but so slight as not to be perceptible at a 
casual glance; the cock being rather lighter, and having a 
little more of an ash-coloured shade on the rump, while the 
hen has a slight brown tint on the shoulders. Their most 
distinguishing mark is a narrow black collar on the neck, 
edged with white, from which the}' derive their name of 
Collared Turtle, and from which they are sometimes im¬ 
properly called Ring Doves, that name belonging to tlie 
Great Wood Pigeon, with a white ring about its neck. The 
pinion feathers are of a deeper drab, the first having a 
peculiar broad, oar shaped end ; the tail is long, the two 
centre feathers of the prevailing colour, the rest having a 
large white tip. 
As stated above, they are usually bred in cages,- being 
supplied with a small box or basket nesting-place ; they 
form a nest of small twigs and fine roots, similar to the 
common Turtle’s, and lay two small white eggs, which they 
hatch out in fourteen days. The young do not have the 
black ring on the neck until they shed their nest feathers, 
which are mostly edged with a very narrow lighter border. 
In confinement their most appropriate food is buckwheat, 
wheat, and canary seed, though they "ill eat almost any 
kind of small grain or seeds. Tares I have found to be 
fatal to them, and they will not eat them if they can procure 
other food. Of hemp seed they are very fond ; but this must 
be given sparingly, or they become fat, unhealthy, and lose 
their feathers. If properly cared for they will breed six or 
seven times in the year, and are very pretty and amusing 
pets. Moving from perch to perch, they often utter a curious 
note, something like a shrill, though somewhat suppressed 
laugh, from which they receive their German name of 
Lachtaube, or Laughing Dove. The play of the cock is 
deep and mellow, though some people regard it as melan¬ 
choly. Swelling out his throat, and bowing his head low, he 
gives out the sound of wlio-oo-oo ; then, rising and taking 
a step forward or after his mate, repeats the same gesture 
and voice. They will also, when tame, coo and bow to any 
one they are accustomed to see. I have seen my bird coo 
after a Shanghae hen when loose in the yard. Mine have 
their liberty, and fly about in the garden during the day. I 
They are arboreal in their habits, preferring to roost and 
build their nests in the shrubs; and, therefore, it is very 
difficult to accustom them to return to a house, or even a 
cage. In this neighbourhood they are sometimes kept in a 
; half-domestic state about gentlemen’s mansions, as is the 
! case at Sevenoaks, Chevcning, and Penshurst, where they 
enjoy their full liberty, and build their nests in the trees 
and shrubs. 
In confinement they will breed with the common Turtle, 
j The hybrid produce is generally considered sterile ; but Dr. 
Bechstein says they will reproduce, and that a remarkable 
I thing is, the produce becomes larger each cross. These 
hybrids have a voice peculiarly their own. 
There is a very pretty and quite white variety, which is, 
! however, much rarer.—B. P. Brent. 
THE EAREHAM POULTRY SHOW. 
In reply to “ Argus,” on the above, I beg, as an exhibitor, 
and having attended very frequently from the commence¬ 
ment to the finish of the Show liehl in January last, to 
state, in justice to the Committee and Secretary, that only 
bran and fine gravel were given to the birds—“ not an atom 
of sawdust was allowed in the pens.” 
As proof that due care was taken, I can certify that no 
bird was lost, injured, or died, out of some three or four 
hundred pens. 
The reason for having the birds on Saturday was, that 
a very large corn and cattle market being held on Mondays, 
that day is the most likely to make the Show remunerative ; 
and as many of the birds were returned in far better con¬ 
dition than received, I consider no great mistake was made. 
— FAIIirLAY. 
