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burgh fowls, especially the cock, are remarkable for having a 
very short, conical beak, as compared with other fowls, which 
has been likened to that of a sparrow. The comparison of 
the skull of any cock pheasant side by side with that of any 
Hamburgh cockerel, will show how little blood-relationship, 
nay, even how slight generic community, there is between 
them. 
The difficulty of bringing about any companionship be¬ 
tween pheasants and fowls, is another significant considera¬ 
tion. Golden pheasants harmonize tolerably well with each 
other, whatever the sex. A male of this species would be 
more likely to run away in terror from any hen that was 
introduced to him, than to take it into his head to make 
advances. But silver pheasant cocks are very savage, and 
fight furiously. A common hen might as safely enter the 
den of a fox, as approach them. A bantam hen, confined 
with a silver pheasant cock, was very soon destroyed by 
him. It does not make any inter-breeding the more pro¬ 
bable, that rare cases of tolerated companionship are now 
and then to be met with. Thus, Dr. Bevan favours me 
with a report of an experiment made by the late Sir Robert 
Vaughan:—“A silver pheasant having lost his lady, pined 
and rejected his food; Sir Robert ordered a common hen 
to be put in to him. For many days they kept as far from 
each other as their habitation permitted; at length the gen¬ 
tleman was observed to collect some grain, and call to his 
i companion to come forward; she, evidently awe-struck, 
cowered away, but, by degrees, became familiar, and on his 
! retreating, would come forward and eat. They continued 
together for some months, but not advancing to closer 
intimacy, the hen was removed, and the pheasant again 
pined and refused food. A second time the hen was intro¬ 
duced, and they continued to live together for years, but 
produced nothing. In this case, the experiment, I think, 
was conducted under peculiarly favourable circumstances, 
and is confirmatory of your opinions." 
Silver pheasants will occasionally intermix with the 
common Colcliicus species. The same correspondent writes: 
“ Sir John Edwards’s gamekeeper has just shot a woodcock 
in my poultry-yard, and as he has the management of the 
pheasants, I asked him whether any experiments had been 
tried among them. The only one was the confining a 
common hen pheasant with a silver pheasant cock, and the 
result was a brood resembling the male parent more than 
the female. When fit, the young were given their liberty 
upon a well-wooded hill, at the foot of which Sir John’s 
residence and my own are situated (Machynlleth). One 
of this mixed breed the gamekeeper had just seen on the 
wing.” Temminck gives other instances; but any case of 
reproductiveness on the part of any half-bred Silver phea¬ 
sant is most rare, if it has ever in truth occurred. 
Offspring have also been very rarely produced between 
the male golden pheasant and the common hen pheasant. 
I have seen such living in the possession of Mr. Sayer, 
bird-stuffer, Ac., Norwich ; some were also exhibited at the 
Great Birmingham Show of 1851. The creatures have a 
very natural and healthy look. A person unacquainted with 
them origin would hardly guess it to be in opposition to 
the usual course of nature. But I believe they have proved 
absolutely sterile in every known instance, nor am I aware 
that any other than cocks of this kind have ever been 
hatched.—D. 
PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE 
MANAGEMENT OF BEES. 
By Henry Wenman Newman, Esq. 
(Continued from page 341.) 
VENTILATION. 
This is another of the new doctrines of the day. It is 
quite plain that, after all, the common straw hives are the 
best for stock or increase, for in these the bees manage to 
ventilate their hives in their own way. I am convinced that 
many hives or boxes are destroyed, particularly the latter, by 
too much air being admitted. The “ beggarly account of 
empty boxes,” which I see in my travels, convinces me that 
. the beautiful “ gothic hives,” or “ grotesque boxes,” are all 
very well to look at, and may be classed amongst the orna¬ 
mental, not the useful bee houses. Many of these interest- 
March 11. | 
ing hives are got up by interested persons, who charge a 
high price for them, a price quite preposterous in itself. The 
best of these hives are Mr. Nutt’s, who certainly has made 
a neat hive, and the boxes I use are a little like his, but 
much more simple, and less expensive. Even these are out 
of the reach of poor people. It is quite remarkable how 
few of these elegant ventilating boxes contain bees. They 
seldom last two years, and they must be constantly visited, 
or the spider is constantly weaving its web around them. 
Not a week elapses but dozens of bees are destroyed. 
The bees in the boxes, separated by tin dividers bored 
with small holes, ahvays fill the small holes with wax, when 
the centre box is not filled entirely, which shews that they 
do not want ventilation. 
SWARMING. 
This season, to the real lover of bees, is the interesting 
time, and to those who admire the wonders of the insect 
creation, nothing can be more gratifying. The wonderful 
instinct shewn by the bees, their attachment to the mother 
queen, in fact the whole manner of increasing their species, 
have been the admiration of mankind, probably long before 
the time of the poet Virgil, w r ho has thus immortalised it in 
his georgics:— 
“ Ergo apibus foetis idem atque examine multo 
Primus abundare et spumantia eogere pressis 
Mella favis.” 
(lie (a Cory clan swain) teas the first to abound with pregnant bees, 
and plentiful swarms, and to squeeze the frothing honey from the 
combs.) 
Generally a silence prevails in the hive previously to the 
issuing of a swarm, when all at once what a rush they 
make! Workers and drones come out indiscriminately, 
head over heels in their haste, until they almost darken the 
air. Hark ! what a splendid hum !! See, they begin to 
settle on that gooseberry bush. How lucky ! No, the skit¬ 
tish capricious queen has left it and gone to that high es¬ 
palier. See, they settle now—get your hives ready, opera¬ 
tor. Beware where you tread. Here is a cluster of bees on 
the ground : examine it. Behold, it is the queen with about 
twenty or thirty faithful followers—seize her, and take her 
to the hive. Haste! haste! the main body of the bees 
are leaving the espalier, they have missed the queen !! 
This is a faithful description of a swarm sometimes, for 
it has often happened to myself. 
Bees should be well watched during this season, otherwise 
many swarms will be lost. I am of opinion that among 
farmers and cottagers, at least one-third of the swarms are 
lost for want of watching, as, contrary to the usual opinion, 
those hives that have no bees clustered outside are much the 
most likely to swarm. 
In 1844 I had an old stock, the bees of which lay out for 
ten days or more, I happened to have another very weak 
stock, which I examined, and found only about a hundred 
bees in the crown of the hive ; I discovered the queen, and 
having caught her in my hand, I placed her on the board of 
this very populous hive. The guards rushed out and stopped 
her; at first they were very much inclined to fall on her, but 
after a rigid examination of her, although a stranger, they 
escorted her out of my sight into the hive. The very next 
morning this stock swarmed; and no dpubt they had no 
spare queen to go out with the young swarm before this. 
Last year, on a Sunday, a man in my employment watched 
my bees about mid-day. Two fine swarms came off from 
different hives and formed a junction, then alighted on the 
top of one of the hives. He observed a queen on the out¬ 
side of the large bunch, and having seized her conveyed her 
to an empty hive, about five yards distant, and a large por¬ 
tion of the bees followed her and were safely hived. 
In May, 1843, there w'as an immense fall of rain, which 
lasted all the month until June loth. During this time 
there was little swarming, although the month of April was 
most favourable. A great many stocks died from want. I 
had one which had swarmed met with this fate. 
'When a swarm settles on a low bush, or in a row of peas, 
they are easily taken; but they more often fix on a stout 
espalier, or large branches of a tree; it is then to brush 
them off as gently as possible. If the liiver waits too long, 
they will take a second flight, and theiq they will get into 
some old tree, or wall, when they may be lost. This is apt 
to be the case in a broiling sun. 
Swanns are very apt to return to the hive ; I had one in 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
