12 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 2, I860. 
WHAT DISQUALIFIES A BIRD FOR 
EXHIBITION. 
The continual receipt of letters from correspondents asking 
what are and what are not disqualifications in exhibition poultry, 
induces us to give some general instructions on the subject. It 
will be almost a truism to say a pen can never be too good to 
enter the lists, and it is not less a verity that judges will tell 
you they never yet found a perfect one. Perfection is as rare in 
fowls as in human beings, and this may encourage many a 
beginner and many an exhibitor whose hopes have been low, when 
he has seen the one fault in the prize pen elect. The eye always 
seeks an unpleasant object; and when the pen from which great 
things are expected is put up for close scrutiny, although the 
owner may speak only of its merits to his friends, he must, if he 
tells the truth, confess he sees only one great defect, and, believing 
judges will do the same, discouragement follows. 
Having stated our opinion that no pen is faultless, we will 
now have to do with the faults themselves. They are of two 
kinds. We will call them fatal and venial. Those in the first 
category are those that at once outweigh all merits and dis¬ 
qualify a pen. The second are those that fowls have in common 
with others, and, therefore, suffer the same comparison as merits. 
In the first may be classed the absence of the fifth claw on one 
foot of a Dorking; a falling comb in a Spanish cock, or a 
crooked one in a Cochin hen ; spikes and gills on the head of a 
Polish cock ; streamers in the tail of a Sebright Bantam, or a 
hen tail in that of black or white birds of the same breed; a 
black breast in a Spangled Hamburgh or a Polish cock, or a 
splashed one in a Grouse Cochin cock ; five claws where four 
only are correct; four where there should be five; mixture of 
colour in the legs of the fowls composing a pen; a crooked 
breast in a Game cock ; a white breast in a Polish or Spangled 
Hamburgh cock; light hackle in a Spangled, and dark one 
in a Pencilled Hamburgh. 
Circumstances may, however, make that venial which might 
have been fatal. For instance: imagine a class sg constituted 
that no pen was really meritorious, and yet none so bad as to 
call imperatively for disqualification. It must then come to a 
weighing of merits and demerits. “ In a nation of blind people, 
he who has one eye is king.” It is necessary in this case to take 
each bird to weigh its disqualifications separately, and then to 
compare them with others. Thus, there may be in one a 
crooked comb, in another a faulty tail, in this a light leg, in that 
a spotted hackle. These faults, fatal if they are found in pens 
opposed to those that are free from them, become venial, and 
rank only in matter of degree when all the entries have them 
or some of them. Judges have then to arrange among them¬ 
selves the exact importance of each defect. This is always an 
unthankful task. A pen of average merit free from glaring defect 
will always take precedence of one of superior merit, but having 
some prominent fault; and a comparison and weighing of defects 
will often explain decisions that seem difficult to understand from 
the absence of startling merit. An accidental injury—as the 
loss of a nail from the toe of a cock is not a disqualification—is 
always considered as such, and does not take away from the 
merit of the subject of it. [This will answer E. H. G.] 
Defects that are plainly hereditary, deformities, and weakness, 
are all dangerous to success. The breaking of a feather, the loss 
of a toe or nail, may be accounted as little more important than 
dirt on the plumage. 
MANAGEMENT OF PEA FOWLS. 
Wile you give me some information respecting the best way 
of treating Pea Fowls which are necessarily kept partially in 
confinement ? What food (ours do not appear to relish barley) 
and what treatment during the change of feathers ? Our 
Peacock having lost his tail about the usual time, has not 
recovered it, and is a miserable spectacle, though otherwise hi 
good plumage.— A Subscriber. 
[Your Pea Fowls want a change of food. If they arc much 
shut up, give them plenty of green meat—such as lettuce, 
cabbage leaves, &c. ; feed principally on meal instead of whole 
corn, and while the birds are moulting add a little stimulant to 
their food in the shape of hempseed, two or three peppercorns ; 
or, for a change, slake the meal with ale, or hot pot-liquor in 
which meat has been cooked. They want plenty of perches as 
high as possible from the ground while shut up.] 
THE CANARY AND THE BRITISH FINCHES- 
{Continued from page 365, Vol. XXIV.) _ 
9th Variety.—The Hooped or Bowed Belgium. 
In contradistinction to the Erect Belgian is the Hooped or 
Bowed fancy. Those properties that would be considered as 
faulty in the former are in this variety esteemed beauties. Thus 
we hear fanciers extolling their crouching and bowed form, like 
an aged and decrepid man. Their ewe neck, their high and 
rounded shoulders amounting to a deformity, their ricketty 
legs, and their tails shut up as in one feather, and tucked be¬ 
tween their legs like a frightened cur—all these are accounted 
good qualities in this peculiar breed. I must confess it is no 
favourite of mine; nor am I altogether singular in this respect,, 
and I have frequently heard the ladies at exhibitions of Canaries 
express their disgust at their strange forms. 
It is not, however, possible for all to admire the same fancies, 
and far be it from me to sit in judgment on other men’s hobbies; 
and it seems to me to be much more equitable to allow the 
fanciers of this variety to speak for themselves. As it would be 
imprudent to pass the bird by without notice, I shall, therefore, 
make no apology for quoting others. 
The fancier, whom I quoted in my last chapter, says, “ The 
next variety I have observed is the very crooked, or what is 
termed the Hooped Belgium, and which is held in this part 
(Sunderland) in the highest and most peculiar estimation. 
“ This bird, as imported here, is very round in the shoulder, 
with very little hollow or cavity ; but has, if I may be allowed 
the expression, a well-finished and nicely-chiselled shoulder. 
This bird is long in the neck, small in the head, very round or 
crooked in the back, and the greatest feature noticed is the 
peculiar manner in which it can with ease lower its head, making 
the neck and shoulders have a camel-like and crooked appearance. 
They are not so fully chested, and with very little ruffle, and not 
quite so large, but very fine and sleek in body. I believe the 
beauty of this variety is upon the same principle as the Highland 
terriers—their beauty consists in their extreme ugliness.” 
A fancier, again writing from Sunderland, says, “The fanciers 
in Belgium tell us that this description of Canary was first intro- 
ducedfrom Austria; the name by which it is known in Belgium is 
Post Fogle, or bird of position : I suppose from the fact that the- 
posture of the bird is the great feature of attraction and esteem. 
“ There are several varieties of this bird in that country, but 
the peculiar features recognised by the most enthusiastic fanciers 
as qualities of distinction or excellence are the following, viz.:— 
