January 29. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
281 
“The suppression of the dovehouseis followed by another 
disadvantage, the loss of their dung, one of the most 
powerful manures for the land destined to carry hemp, which 
we have seen sold in some districts at the same priceas corn.” 
(To be continued.) 
VARIETIES OF PIGEONS. 
SEVENTEENTH RACE. 
Polish Pigeon ( Colombo, polonica ).—These pigeons have 
a very thick and excessively short beak; a red band round 
the eyes, sometimes so large that the two circles it forms 
meet on the top of the head; the eye is often pearled; the 
| head like a toad, that is, of a square form, marked with four 
very high protuberances, which gives it a physiognomy as 
singular as disagreeable; its head, however, is gracefully 
placed on a slender neck, reflecting different colours ; the 
legs are very short, and its feet shod. 
Common Polish Pigeon (Columba jjolonica vulgaris ).— 
This bird is rather larger than the Swallow pigeon. Its 
plumage is of different colours, black, red, huff, streaked, 
I grey, and all white. It produces well, but brings up very 
few of its young ones, in consequence of the shortness of its 
beak, which causes it great difficulty in feeding them. The 
handsomest have two small mushrooms, in the shape of a 
bean, on the under mandible of the beak; but, generally 
speaking, they do not form properly until they have attained 
a certain age. 
Soft Polish Pigeon (Cohnnha polonica Unis ).-—Smaller 
than the preceding, beak a little longer, and the ribbon of 
the eye not so large; iris frequently black. M. Vieillot 
thinks that the name has been given it from the softness 
of its physiognomy. It is very fruitful, and nourishes its 
young better than the preceding, but it has been nearly 
abandoned by the amateurs as not being very interesting for 
its beauty. 
Blue Polish Pigeon (Columba polonica ccerulea ).—We 
think we ought to place this species mentioned by ancient 
authors here, but we confess that this bird is quite unknown 
to us. Authors sometimes describe it as a species, some¬ 
times as a variety of the dovecote pigeon. Willoughby has 
described it under the name of Columba barb uric a seu 
numidica, and represented it, pi. 34, under that of Columba 
numidica seu cyoria. Bresson, no doubt from him, has 
described it under the name of the Columba barbarica. We 
will transcribe literally the description he gives of it. “ A 
very short beak; the eyes encircled with a wide band of 
naked skin, covered again with white sinewey pyramids; 
plumage inclined to blue, marked with two blackish spots 
on the wings.” 
Crested Polish Pigeon (Columba polonica cristata ); 
resembling the common Polish, but having a tuft behind 
the head. This variety would produce well, if, like the other, 
the extreme shortness of the beak did not cause it great 
difficulty in nourishing its young. It is now only commonly 
found in Germany. 
(To be continued.) 
COCHIN-CHINA FOWLS. 
The subject of Cochin-China fowls has become one of 
such interest to many of your readers, that I will not apo¬ 
logize for troubling you with a few thoughts thereon. The 
late splendid show at Birmingham has convinced me that 
the time is passed when it is necessary to look for excellence 
in imported birds. The Anglo-Cocliin breed (if I may so 
term it) so far surpasses the original strain, as to render it 
a matter of unnecessary expense and risk to order birds, 
even if obtainable, to be sent from China; perhaps nobody 
knows this better than Mr. Sturgeon, who, without doubt, 
deserves every praise for the manner in which he has raised 
the breed. 1 doubt much, if you searched the province of 
Cochin-China throughout, you could match the birds that 
Mr. Sturgeon has at Grays. Uniformity of colour, added 
to weight, is, in my opinion, then.' great attribute. The 
hackle differing in no degree from the feathers of the body, 
is a splendid property in his blood, and to this all breeders 
must look if they desire to arrive at excellence. Unques¬ 
tionably Mr. Sturgeon stands at the head of all breeders of 
this splendid fowl, and well he deserves his meed of praise 
for the courtesy and kindness with which he treats all who 
apply to him, is beyond any attempt of mine to describe.— 
W. P. L. 
STOVES FOR GREENHOUSES. 
It is frequently enquired of you whether an iron stove 
will sufficiently warm a small greenhouse. A neighbour of 
mine, who is only a yearly tenant, being desirous to put up 
a small removeable greenhouse, for the preservation of his 
plants during the present winter, and having an Arnott stove 
which he did not use, thought he could do so at a very’ 
small cost, and without the dirt and mess of masons in 
building a brick flue. On the space selected, there was 
already laid a brick floor of sufficient size, and there was also 
a w r all of sufficient length, on the one side of the spot, the 
object being to make a greenhouse legally removeable. A 
wooden frame was laid on the surface of the brickwork, each 
frame-light made as a seperate window, and screws v r ere 
used to fasten them together. After ten days trial, and a 
great deal of trouble and disappointment, it was found that 
the stove would not at all answer, chiefly for want of draft, 
but very much in consequence of its choking itself up with 
ashes, the removal of which caused a great deal of dust and 
annoyance to the plants. Moreover the lighting of the stove 
occasioned a great smoke; the iron pipes, which were carried 
along the length of the house, heated and cooled too rapidly, 
so that during the late frosts, the thermometer varied be¬ 
tween 50° and freezing point during the night, and but for 
straw matting, platted on hurdles, and placed around the 
outside of the glass, the plants would have been destroyed. 
A stove-maker who was applied to, had the honesty to admit 
at once, that no stove would burn in a room with so little 
draft; and that carrying a draft by a tube under the floor 
would scarcely operate when the wind was not directly in the 
teeth of the drafthole, and when it was so, it would cause the 
fire to burn out so rapidly that it would leave the stove and 
iron pipes very hot for an hour or two : and they would then 
cool as rapidly. A common brick flue at one end, carried 
along the base of the wall, with an iron pipe at the other to 
act as a chimney through the roof (which was a span one), 
now answers very well; I am convinced that it is cheaper 
and better to build a flue at once, even in a small green¬ 
house, than to try experiments and makeshifts. 
A Worcestershire Man. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Culture op the Guernsey Lily.—W e write this in answer to some 
of our correspondents, though in this case it is almost superfluous to do 
so, because of the extreme cheapness of the blooming roots which are 
annually imported from Guernsey, and are certain to flower, and because 
of the extreme ditficulty of so growing the bulbs that have flowered, that 
they may bloom again ; and besides that, we have, in our gardens, a species 
of the same genus (Nerine Fothergillii), that will easily flower annually, 
when of sufficient size and strength. This species is quite as handsome 
as the Nerine sarniensis, or Guernsey Lily. Supposing our correspond¬ 
ents possess some good bulbs of the latter, as soon as they begin to 
grow, which generally will happen about the middle of August, prepare 
to pot them, First procure some good loam, mix it with about one-third 
