172 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December 18. 
known by liis work upon poultry; but before concluding 
we must warn our readers that, when we press poultry¬ 
keeping upon their attention as a source of large profit, 
we presuppose that they will pay more attention to the 
selection of their stock, and more attention to their 
management, than is too usually not given. Eowls 
deserve as much attention on these points as do our 
short-horns and our south-downs; without which atten¬ 
tion these more expensive portions of farming stock 
would never have reached their present elevation of pro¬ 
fitable excellence. 
Birmingham has just been offering to public admiration 
another unprecedented collection of poultry, of very high, 
though unequal merit. This inequality among the classes 
was greater than last year; and such fluctuations must be 
expected for some time to come, until this rising department 
of rural economy shall have established itself in the position 
it deserves to occupy, and its principles become settled. 
Thus, the Spanish fowls were by no means so good as in 
1850, and gained no extra medal; this was, doubtless, 
merely accidental, for some good birds were present. Mr. 
J. H. Peck, of Wigan, was the most successful exhibitor of 
Spanish fowls. The number of good White Dorkings was 
less than there might have been; and the cultivators of 
Malays had been so lax in their exertions, that for Class 
XIII. (a cock and three hens of that breed), neither a first 
nor a second prize was awarded—the best present being 
only third-class specimens. The waning glory of these 
birds is hardly to be lamented, when we regard their small 
claim to utility and their questionable pretensions to beauty. 
For Class XV. (cock and one hen, Malay), again no first 
prize. The Golden-Pencilled Hamburghs, generally so 
charming, and such prime favourites, from Birmingham 
westwards and northwards, hardly did themselves justice ; 
nor did the Polish fowls. The Bantams also had declined; 
of these, not a few little family parties had better have been 
hidden within the crust of a pie than displayed in a pen in 
Bingley Hall. And here ends the unpleasant and dangerous 
duty of fault-finding. 
To give an idea of the number of specimens congre¬ 
gated, the judges’ list contained 1,056 entries, or pens made 
up of about 4,000 head of fowls. 
The coloured Dorkings maintained their old-established 
reputation, and numbered exactly ninety pens. For the 
judgment of these, no appeal to the scales and weights hap¬ 
pened to be necessary, and the Judges had little time to 
gratify their own curiosity in this respect. But, we believe, 
had there been leisure for them to do so, that the results 
would have been unexpected and surprising. The contents 
of a Dorking fowl, if we may so speak, are very cleverly 
packed; if there is much meat upon them, there is really 
more than there appears to be. The Hon. and Rev. Mr. 
Lawley was one of the most successful exhibitors, and the 
gainer of an extra medal. Mr. George Lowe, Smithfield, 
Birmingham, obtained the first prize for a cock and three 
hens, and also an extra medal; the second prize in the class 
falling to Mr. T. B. Wright. 
The game fowls, as heretofore, were extremely beautiful, 
and in wonderful variety. Every one knows how handsome 
are the males of these breeds; but the excellent arrange¬ 
ments of the exhibition committee permitted close inspec¬ 
tion of the peculiar elegance of the hen birds. There they 
stood ranged, in many-tinted plumage, a troop of lovely 
vixens, petulant and furious, not merely looking as if each 
one could eat up a rival, but in not a few cases actually be¬ 
ginning to do so, to the annoyance of the attendants who 
have to act as poultry police, and keep the queen’s peace 
among the fowls. One scarely knew which most to admire 
in this department, whether the dainty Worcestershire Piles, 
the gorgeous Black-breasted Reds, the harmonious Duck¬ 
wing Greys, or the swarthy Birchen Greys and Blacks, 
looking very like imps disguised in half or entire mourning. 
It needed little imagination to supply the demoniac fire to 
flash from out their eyes and nostrils. Three first prizes 
were awarded here : 388, with an extra medal, to Mr E. H. 
France, Ham Hill, Worcester; 385, Messrs. W. and J. H. 
Parkes, Camp Hill, Birmingham; and 302, Mr. E. L. Bul¬ 
lock, Hawthorn House, Handswortli. The pens of six ; 
chickens, as well as the single cocks and hens, were de- j 
serving of high commendation. 
At the present day, however, the classes which excite the 
greatest furore amongst fanciers are unquestionably those | 
consisting of Cochin China fowls. To these rush the crowds ! 
of male and female amateurs, and are with difficulty dis¬ 
lodged either by entreaty or force. Those who love to be 
squeezed in a crowd were gratified by their visit to the 1 
region of Cochin Chinas. Here, again, was a large col¬ 
lection with great merit. To Class X., Cochin China cock 
and three hens, were awarded two first prizes, and to each 
an extra medal, viz., 17!) (hatched on the 20th of May last), 
Mr. G. J. Andrews, Dorchester; and 171, Mr. T. Sturgeon, 
Manor House, Greys, Essex. It is quite a mistake to sup- ! 
pose that, in forming a judgment of the merits of this | 
breed, mere weight is, or ought to be, the main qualifica¬ 
tion. In Mr. Sturgeon’s pen the cock weighed 10;} lbs., the 
hens, 9Jlbs., 81} lbs., and 8 lbs. respectively. In Mi-. 
Andrews’s the cock weighed 8-J lbs., one of the pullets (for 
they were all young birds) 5} lbs., and the rest on a par. 
Yet, if it were necessary to pronounce which was the supe¬ 
rior lot of the two, we should decidedly give a casting vote 
in favour of the latter. Both these lots were bright, light- 
coloured, feather-legged birds, with the least possible allow¬ 
ance of tail—(no sickle-feathers in that of the cock)—great 
bundles of fluffy feathers about the thighs, and a very 
“ Bloomerish ” look in the aspect of the females. Mr. Stur¬ 
geon has had Cochin Chinas to weigh as much as 121bs., but 
not higher. A very meritorious pen was 269, exhibited by 
Mr. F. C. Steggall, of Weymouth, and consisting of six light 
pullets, hatched last April. These obtained an extra third 
prize. It is a pity a cock was not substituted for one of 
these demoiselles; but even a little nunnery like this is less 
displeasing to the eye than a pen of six cock birds. For two 
of these, .£15 was offered, and refused—the price of a pony ’ 
or a good cow. Perhaps, another year, the rules will em¬ 
power the judges to disqualify pens consisting exclusively of 
either sex. Some handsome White Cochin Chinas, as 238, 
from Mr. Edmund Herbert, Powick, Worcestershire, and 
281, Mr. George Graham, Yardley, Worcestershire, received 
prizes. Altogether, the number of competing lots of Cochin 
China fowls was 154. The excitement they have caused ( 
among the parties interested is barely credible. Louis Na¬ 
poleon and the French Revolution are disregarded as but of 
secondary importance. A pair of Cochin China fowls are 
the subject of this year’s Poultry Medal, very neatly exe¬ 
cuted by Mr. Thomas Ottley, whom we congratulate that the 
material which bears the impress of his portraits in relievo, 
saves him from all disputes and vexed questions pertaining 
to colour. 
We were very glad to see a much improved extra class— 
Ornamental Poultry and Water-fowl. An exhibition of the 
rank attained by this ought to be, in its way, an encyclopaedia 
of its subject, affording information to the student, not in 
printed words, but by displaying a museum of living specimens 
as copious as may be. This year, Pea-fowl, for the first time, 
graced Bingley Hall, and no one who saw them there would 
wish them to be absent on any future occasion. Besides 
those of the normal species, there were very good pied and 
pure white specimens, each unfortunately companionless; and 
also a good pair of the not common Japanned—not as the 
catalogue has it “Japan” birds, (1,022). Several pens of 
Golden pheasants, standing the public gaze better than 
might have been expected, and probably overwhelmed with 
despair at their debut on this stage, were contributed by 
various gentlemen. Lot 1,042, cross-bred birds between the 
Golden and Common pheasant, from Loi’d Beauchamp, and 
1,051, a cross-bred between the mallard and the pintail,from 
Lord Wenlock (who has many more such, and with whom 
they have been produced in a state of comparative freedom, 
and not upon compulsion), were rare and highly interesting ; 
for the late Lord Derby’s wonderful experiment with the 
Versicolor pheasant, as detailed in the Quarterly Review for 1 
March last, has shown that all a priori reasoning on the sub¬ 
ject of hybridization is of little value. A pair of partridges, 
1049, made a pleasing little pen. A few good Silk fowl served 
to show many of the spectators that there were more things 
on earth than they had dreamt of in their philosophy. The 
