370 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 11. 
and some are solid; and many of them are clothed with 
fine hairs, which reflect prismatic colours—this is especially 
remarkable in the beautiful Padina pnvonia, which shows its 
! love of sunshine by growing in shallow pools of warm tem¬ 
perature, and its fronds are twice the size in warm summers. 
■ May not we learn a lesson from this humble weed ? The 
; more it basks in the warm rays of the sun, the more it 
improves in beauty and approaches to perfection. The 
more humbly and closely we walk with God, the more we 
shall grow in grace and increase in the knowledge and love 
of the Saviour, the Sun of Righteousness. 'With respect to 
the minute works of God, Dr. Chalmers remarks, that 
“ About the time of the invention of the telescope another 
instrument was formed, which laid open a scene no less 
wonderful, and rewarded the inquisitive spirit of man. This 
was the microscope. The one led me to see a system in 
every star, the other leads me to see a world in every atom. 
The one taught me that this mighty globe, with the whole 
burden of its people, and of its countries, is hut a grain of 
sand in the high field of immensity; the other teaches me 
that every grain of sand may harbour within it the tribes 
and families of a busy population. The one told me of the 
insignificance of the world I tread upon ; the other redeems 
it from all its insignificance, for it tells me that in the leaves 
of every forest, and in the flowers of every garden, and in 
the waters of every rivulet, there are worlds teeming with 
life, and numberless as are the glories of the firmament.” 
—S. B. 
(To be continued.) 
BRAHMA POUTRA FOWLS. 
In your number of July 14th, you notice, that Mr. Nolan, 
of Dublin, had received some Brahma Poutra fowls from 
America, and that “ he considers them a distinct race, 
although a subdivision of Shanghae ; that they lay as many 
eggs, and as near as possible the size of Turkeys.” You 
add, “As we entertain grave doubts on these points, we will 
say no more upon the subject.” 
Having some Brahma Poutra fowls imported direct from 
America, from Dr. Bennett and Mr. Burman, the principal 
| breeders and amateurs of that country, I beg to offer my 
j opinion and experience on the subject of their being a 
j distinct race, in addition to the evidence of the American 
gentlemen who introduced them here. 
When I first saw the Brahma Poutra fowls sent by Dr. 
i Bennett to Mrs. Hosier Williams, and exhibited at the 
I Great Metropolitan Poultry Exhibition, I thought (most 
[ erroneously, with many others) that they were cross-bred 
j birds, but I am now convinced to the contrary, having seen 
the produce of several of the pairs imported, which are 
exactly like the parent birds to a feather; further confirmed 
by the old adage, “ Like begets like.” 
Were they cross-bred birds, as at first supposed, their 
very peculiar and regularly-marked colouring (black and 
white) would be sure to he more or less predominant in 
their produce, for no party-coloured bird is so certain of 
sporting or producing too much of the one colour or the 
other; whereas, the fact is, all their chickens are beautifully 
marked like the parent birds, almost similar to the Silver- 
Pencilled Hamburglis. I quite, therefore, agree with Mr. 
Nolan, that they are a pure and distinct race, and that they 
will be a most valuable addition to our poultry yards ; they 
are larger and heavier than the Shanghae, have all their 
good qualities, are better layers, have more flesh on their 
breasts, hut, not having tasted any, cannot say how far 
their flesh is white, juicy, and well-flavoured. 
As I have said before, there are a few more Brahma 
Poutra’s beside my own in England, I shall, therefore, be 
much obliged to those who possess them to he so good as 
to give us their opinion on their birds, and have no doubt 
that both you and many of your readers will be equally so. 
Dr. Bennett, I think, presented Her Majesty with a pair. 
Dr. Gwynne, of Sandbacli, Cheshire, has some; also, Mr. 
Bowman, of Penzance; and Mr. Paul Garbonati, 385, 
Oxford Street, London. To the latter gentleman I am 
much obliged for valuable information on the subject, he 
having been in communication with Dr. Bennett, and, I 
believe, other American amateurs.— Henky Gilbeet, Ken¬ 
sington. 
[We shall most readily insert any communication of facts 
relative to these birds. At present our opinion that they 
are cross-breds, or a variety of the Shanghae, remains un- I 
shaken, and the variations in those exhibited at the London j 
Summer Show strengthens our opinion. Still, whether 
cross-breds, or a distinct breed, if they have permanent good 
qualities, we shall be glad to publish the result of any one’s i 
experience concerning them.— Ed. C. G.j 
You state, in your Journal of the 4th instant, that the j 
chickens of Brahma Poutras vary from their parents, and 
the parents are not uniform: that Mr. Rawson’s widely 
differ from Dr. Gwynne’s; and Dr. Gwynne’s chickens are 
neither like their parents, nor like those exhibited by Mr. 
Sheehan. 
I certainly agree with you, that Mr. Rawson’s birds widely 
differ from Dr. Gwynne’s. Dr. Gwynne’s and my own birds 
are pure Brahma Poutra fowls, hut as to any other birds that 
were in that exhibition, called Brahma Poutras (except a 
pair of chickens, the property of Mr. Jones, pen 19, extra 
class), I should be sorry to undertake to say what they 
were. 
As to Dr. Gwynne’s Brahma chickens not being like their 
parents, that is a mistake, for they are exactly alike, and 
so are my chickens precisely like the old birds. You will 
please to understand that Dr. Gwynne’s parent birds were 
not at the exhibition; whereas the remarks read as if a 
comparison had been made between the Doctor’s chickens 
and their parents. 
You state that Dr. Gwynne’s Brahma chickens were not 
like those exhibited by myself. This is an error; they are 
as much alike as any chickens possibly can he, so much so, 
that I question if any one could pick out the Doctor’s from 
mine if they were all running together.—W. B. Sheehan. 
[All that was meant to be conveyed by the comment on 
the 4th, is that the old and young Brahma Poutras ex¬ 
hibited are strangely varying, if all are Bramah Poutras. 
We are aware that Dr. Gwynne’s old birds were not at the 
exhibition, and that the young ones there do, in his opinion, 
resemble their parents; but we are also aware that in his 
opinion they are only a variety of the Shanghae.— Ed. C. G.] 
AVhen I saw, in your notices to correspondents, a fortnight 
ago, Mr. Nolan’s statement that Brahma Poutra fowls’ eggs 
were as nearly as possible the size of those of a turkey, it 
was so contrary to my own experience with several hens of 
the breed, that I imagined that possibly, when he wrote, his 
birds had only just arrived, and had been presenting him 
with a few double-yolked eggs; the consequence, probably, 
of a too stimulating diet, after the exhaustion induced by 
the long voyage; and I thought it not unlikely, that when 
they had recovered their normal condition of laying, you 
might have to contradict this interesting piece of intelli¬ 
gence by another communication from Mr. Nolan. So far 
from such a contradiction, however, I was not a little 
startled at finding, in your present number, a similar asser¬ 
tion by the same gentleman, respecting the eggs laid by her 
Majesty’s gray Shanghaes. He says, “ Had you applied to 
any of the Royal Household, you could have been informed 
that the Royal table has been furnished with Brahma 
Poutra eggs since December last, and that their size, and 
that of their eggs, is as near as possible that of our ordinary 
turkey. I know it by experience. In this particular, they 
are a decided improvement On the Cochins.” I do not know 
what may have been the nature or extent of Mr. Nolan’s 
experience of the Queen’s Grays, nor of his correspondence 
with the Royal Household; but I beg to assure him, that 
the above assertion is quite incorrect, so far, at least, as 
regards the size of the eggs laid by these particular birds. 
I happen to have been favoured with some of these eggs, in 
exchange for some from my own Brahma’s, which, although 
said to be from a different strain, are, with her Majesty’s 
birds, I am well assured, from the only strains in America 
of any repute under the titles of Gray Shanghae and 
Brahma Poutra. The eggs sent me (and as they were sent 
at three different times, with an interval of a few weeks 
between each, 1 may fairly presume I had some from most 
of the bens in question) differed neither in size nor appear¬ 
ance from those of the more common varieties of Shanghae 
