342 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
February 26. 
to become as tame as house lambs, if tamability made part 
of their fortune, or their phrenology. Let the reader con¬ 
trast all he has ever heard, or known, respecting the docility 
of home-bred gold and silver pheasants, with Mr. Blyth’s 
relation of what is now passing under his eyo with respect 
to wild pea-fowl. 
“In many places they (the wild peafowl) are protected 
by the Hindoo inhabitants, and become very tame, though 
unreclaimed.—See an anecdote quoted in my notice of the 
Indian Cranes, published in Sir W. Jardine’s ‘Contributions 
to Ornithology,’ 1850. The few I have seen were as wild 
as they could bo, not permitting an approach within gun¬ 
shot; and we could only get at them when driven forward 
by a line of beaters in the direction of our concealed posi¬ 
tion, picking them off as they Hew over. The Jungle fowl 
and black partridge were, however, our chief objects of 
pursuit; and 1 may mention that a wild pea-chick is most 
undeservedly under-rated in this country for the table. 
The old birds of either sex are only fit to make soup of. 
Many are taken alive by certain Shikaris (game-purveyors), 
who occasionally bring them to Calcutta tor sale, their fea¬ 
thers uninjured, but the eyes sewn up, and that very coarsely. 
A row of these temporarily-blinded birds they carry perched 
on a pole, and they are generally well-fed and in good con¬ 
dition, having been caught some time and attentively fed. 
When the ligatures which had closed the eyelids are cut, (and 
this is a nice operation sometimes, from the festered or 
united state of the parts, requiring the skilful use of a 
lancet or sharp pen-knife, yet the bird soon recovers, how¬ 
ever disfigured for a time,) they are as wild as any ncwly- 
caught pheasant ; but placed with fowls and other tame poultry, 
they are not long in becoming sufficiently familiar, i.e., in 
losing much of their timidity," Further, it appears, “ The 
tame peafowl of England does not, that I am aware of, 
differ from the wild bird in any particular whatever. But 1 
have never heard of white or pied peafowl in this country, 
except some of the former recently imported, and which 
breed here most freely.” Unless any newly-captured bird 
begins soon to make the best of a bad bargain, and, after 
an indulgence of the first passion of grief and rage at. the 
loss of liberty, tries to look about it with the manifest con¬ 
viction that “ what can’t be cured must be endured,” like 
these poor wild peafowl after their cruel discipline of tem¬ 
porary blindness, I believe that all hope of domesticating it 
or its offspring may be deferred in scccula sceculomm (for ages 
of ages). 
Both the golden and the silver pheasants may be con¬ 
sidered as modern, though not recent, acquisitions to Eu¬ 
rope. They may have been imperfectly known to the 
ancients by rumour, as well as by skins, or even by a few 
of their more remarkable feathers. Cuvier, indeed, suggests 
that the Phoenix of those days was no other than our golden 
pheasant.—See Pliny’s description for the points of agree¬ 
ment. Tlio points of disagreement, and the fabulous portion 
of its history, are scarcely more inconsistent with truth, than 
were very lately entertained notions respecting the birds of 
Paradise, or even than the current and popular belief of the 
way in which struthious birds are hatched. The golden 
pheasant does not appear to have been known to Aldrovandi, 
although he quotes Marco Polo’s notice of the Long-tailed 
or Reeve’s pheasant, which states that “ in the regions 
Ergimul and Cirquth (wherever they may be), which are 
tributary to the Great Cham, very largo pheasants are 
found (supposed of that size, to be in proportion to their 
appendages), with such a length of tail as to exceed 
eighteen palms.” The imported spoils of our birds may be 
those alluded to, when he relates that “ Ornithologus writes 
that certain fisherman, at stated times of the year, imitate I 
know not what kind of flies by means of pheasant’s feathers, 
with which, attached to a hook, they manage to deceive tlio 
fish." Such gaudy feathers aro in great request at the 
present day by the gentlemen who successfully trace the 
course of our salmon streams. But another half-forgotten 
naturalist furnishes us with a still more precise historic 
record, as far as England is concerned. Albin Albik, 
vol. iii. page 34, figures the golden pheasant as “ The Red 
Pheasant Cock from China.” He says, “ I do not find this 
beautiful bird described by any author; it was in the pos¬ 
session of the Honourable John Spencer , Esquire, at his 
house in Windsor Park, where I went by his order to draw 
it” (July 21, 1735). His next plate, dated two years later, 
gives the silver pheasant under the title of “The White 
China Pheasant.” After a description, he adds, “This bird 
I saw at a lady's at Enfield, where I made a drawing from 
it. I do not find this bird described in any author.” 1). 
(To be continued.) 
ON KEETING FOWLS FOR PROFIT. 
It is an unpleasant task to find fault, especially when it is 
with one’s favourites, but I fear I must, nevertheless, ac¬ 
knowledge that a great number of the fowls which are kept 
in England are a sad, worthless community, sadly neglected, 
and sadly standing in need of reform. 
According to an insertion in the Times a few weeks back 
(quoting the number given in the. trade returns), 108,365,121 
eggs were imported in eleven months, giving an increase, I 
find, of 90,545,262 since 1848. Yet, at the same time that 
we are going to other countries to supply this advancing 
demand for eggs—which must be rather stale before tliey 
can be made use of—how many thousand families of the 
working classes there are at home, to whom an addition of 
two shillings or half-a-crown per week, to the present 
earnings, for ten months in the year, would be most accept 
able.; and whose children are daily injured in character, for 
want of some rational occupation and employment. I speak 
of this pursuit now as an assistance only, not as an entire 
occupation. I heard (the intelligence came from a custom¬ 
house officer at a port in tho West of England, of no very 
considerable importance) that seventy tons of eggs were 
landed at the quay, and weighed at the railway by which 
they were forwarded, in one day. Now, if the hundred and 
sixty or two hundred thousand hens employed to lay these 
eggs in a week, could be divided among twenty thousand 
families near the places where the demand exists, how 
much more satisfaction there would be in their consumption, 
than there possibly can be, after they have become many 
days old, and subjected to the shaking of a sea voyage. 
The minimum price for new-laid eggs in London and its 
neighbourhood is a penny and tliree-lialfpence each, pro¬ 
vided the purchasers can depend on their freshness; those 
for puddings vary between twelve and twenty for a shilling. 
I believe the price in other places bears about the same re¬ 
lation to the price of other commodities. The facility with 
which they can be disposed of must of course depend much 
on the locality, and the distance of a market; but tho col¬ 
lection and sale of eggs might surely be arranged and 
carried out by some one person, for all the small poultry 
keepers in a neighbourhood, with advantage both to himself 
and his employers. I think Mr. Richardson mentions, that 
in Ireland, this matter of collecting eggs is managed by 
young boys, the amount of whose pay depends on the care 
and steadiness with which the task is executed. I think 
this plan would increase tho benefit of the trifle earned a 
hundred-fold, by often making a steady, intelligent man, out 
of an idle, careless boy. At the present time, when so many 
farmers, headed by a greatly respected and illustrious pro¬ 
moter of agricultural improvement, are turning then' atten¬ 
tion towards the rearing of poultry, I am sure there are 
many who would kindly assist their poorer neighbours will) 
both advice and help in. finding a market for tho produce of 
their little hen-yards. 
The characters of children are improved, in many respects, 
by having live stock entrusted to them. Pretty creatures to 
love and pet, and tend with care. 
I will conclude this article with a few plain hints for the 
use of such persons as may wish to adopt my suggestion, 
but who may not be at present acquainted with the practice 
of keeping a few fowls with economy. 
Be careful, in tho first place, to feed with economy; let 
the fowls have an abundant supply of food, but take care 
that none is wasted. Middlings, for common use, is as good 
as barley-meal, and half the price. It will not be found bad 
economy to buy oat-meal for tlio chickens, although it is 
rather dear. Give a little meat. Tho liquor in which bacon 
or other meat has been boiled is very good to mix with the 
meal. 
In the second place, do not encourage any lazy ones 
among the little flock. Do not keep a hen that lays less 
