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THE COTTAGE GARDE NEK AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, June 2, 1851 
BELGIAN CANARIES. 
I have to thank Mr. Etherington for his kindness in 
giving me some information respecting pied mule breed¬ 
ing. I am sorry to add that I am one of those who have 
tried the Cheverel, or White-throated Goldfinch, both with 
yellow and pied hens without success. 
As regards the characteristics of Belgian Canaries I beg 
to remind him that I did not set forth mv ideas as the rules 
V 
of what English fanciers call Belgian Canaries. 1 have bred 
“ Belgian Canaries ” for thirteen years. I commenced keep¬ 
ing them at St. Qmer, my birds being procured for me from 
the Flemish provinces, and I assure Mr. E. that for a bird 
to be round shouldered or hooped, that is to say, the head 
and tail forming a curve with the body, is one of the greatest 
faults a true Belgian can possess. 
Length is a point of great importance, but for the birds to 
be straight and erect like a falcon is above all other points 
desirable. Coarse birds are frequently bent or hooped, 
though this fault may also be induced by the perches being 
too near to the top of the cage, which will spoil the best- 
carriaged birds. 
It would seem strange if this fault, so much despised in 
one part, should be considered a beauty in another, but so 
it ever will be. Tastes and fancies differ. The Italians 
admire a full-proportioned waist, while some nations I could 
mention prefer one so small as to seem like aiming at a 
divorce between the upper and lower extremities; thus en¬ 
couraging weakness and disease in place of health and hap¬ 
piness. One nation likes a prominent or straight nose, 
another breaks it to inake it flat; one admires a well-pro¬ 
portioned head, while another flattens it as a sign of High 
descent. If we endeavour to keep our teeth clean and white, 
another nation prefers them black. 
Still, I do not think it would be fair to set forth as pure 
Belgian Canaries those birds that represent the worst points 
of the breed, he., being hooped, as has been done by some 
writers of late. I do not object to any other of the points 
advanced, but I prefer the shoulders not too pinched or 
narrow, nor yet the bird too coarse. The tail, also, I prefer 
not shut up as one feather, but about as wide as two. These 
last points are, however, merely my own ideas but hooped 
being a fault is a standard rule where I first bred and ob¬ 
tained them.—B. P. Brent. 
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_ 
mm n*' h ■ i - 
NOTES ON POLANDS. 
Both “ Perruquier ” and “ C. E. C.” must pardon me 
for thinking that they are rather heretical in their opinion 
when they assert that the crest of the Polish cock should 
fall equally all round. Now, although I would not for a 
moment have it thought that I agree with “The Comb 
Champion” and “A Poland Fancier ” in the matter of 
combs, believing as I do, with “ C. E. C.,” that a comb in a 
Poland cock is as great a defect as possible (I might, per¬ 
haps, except a humped back), yet I do not believe that the 
crest of either cock or hen should fall forward in front. I 
think this a very great defect, and one which I would on no 
account tolerate. 
Nor, in a general way, would the comb be any prevention 
to the falling of the crest in the front, as “ The Comb 
Champion” seems to think it would, as I have several times 
seen birds with plenty of comb have their crest falling quite 
over the comb. 
“ The Comb Champion ” urges, as another reason for the 
Polish fowls wearing combs, that it is natural for them to do 
so. Allow me to say that I consider this a very bad reason; 
indeed, none at all; for, if Nature is to be admitted as our 
guide, then we may say that Cochins should have plain legs; 
Spanish, red faces; Dorkings, only four claws, and so on; 
for it is equally true that it is natural for all these fowls to 
have the points named as that it is natural that Polish fowls 
should have combs. No, we must not admit Nature here; 
for, although Nature is well enough in her place, she will not 
do at all here; she is here quite out of her place. 
Allow me to say that I consider the Poland stands in 
the first rank as a useful fowl. It is one of the best of 
layers, and I do not find the chickens any tenderer or less 
hardy than any other breed, excepting the Cochins and 
141 
Malays, and as a table fowl it has only one drawback—its 
dark leg; in all other points it is surpassed by none. Before 
this season I always used to consider my Black-crested 
Black and Silver Polish to be the best and earliest layers of 
the whole family ; but this season their Golden cousins have 
quite equalled them. I fully believe that the Polish fowl 
only requires to be more extensively kept for its good quali¬ 
ties to be better appreciated.—G-. YV. B., Louth. 
\ 
WHITE RABBITS WITH BLACK POINTS. 
Having- observed in your journal of the 10th of March, 
an inquiry as to the origin of the white Rabbits with 
black noses, ears, feet, and tail, and with pink eyes, a pair 
of which were exhibited at the Crystal Palace- Show, and 
which, according to your correspondent, amongst other 
names, have been styled “Africans,” I believe I can give 
some information on the subject, as I am almost certain 
that the stock now sold in London and the vicinity at such 
high prices was bred from Rabbits of my own of nearly an 
opposite colour. About nine years back I commenced 
breeding silver grey tame Rabbits from a stock of a few 
silver greys and blacks, which I procured from a dealer 
in Leadenhall Market, and for four years after, though I 
bred some hundreds, no other colours were ever thrown than 
silvers, blacks, or sprints, i.e ., only partly covered with the 
silver points. About that time I introduced a buck which 
had been bred by crossing the produce of a wild silver grey 
buck and tame doe twice with other tame silvers, conse¬ 
quently having one-eighth of wild blood in him. Amongst 
the first litter bred from him and a silver grey doe appeared 
a white Rabbit, similar to the Crystal Palace pair; and 
during that season my does occasionally bred by him these 
white Africans, and also sandy ones. The following season, 
to change the blood and improve the quality of the fur, I 
introduced some half-wild silver grey bucks, bred from a 
Lincolnshire warren buck and tame doe. When the two wild 
strains united the Africans became more numerous (about 
one-third in number to two-thirds of silvers). On two occa¬ 
sions, five and four years ago, I sent some silver grey does, 
and also a number of Africans, to a dealer in Leadenhall 
Market, and from them, I have no doubt, those in London and 
the vicinity were bred. My reason for this opinion is, that, 
except the dealer above mentioned and those who have 
purchased from him, no other person hut myself and about 
seven others to whom I have sold them within the last ye'Ur, 
is in possession of a pure silver grey tame breed crossed 
with the wild. I sold the greater part of my stock to a 
gentleman last year, retaining only a few silvers, which I 
selected as not breeding Africans, and out of about sixty 
Rabbits bred last season there were only three, and those 
sandy, one of which I now have. I understand that, on the 
Norfolk silver grey warren, where the Rabbits have been 
much intermixed with the common grey, numerous sandy 
and white Africans appear; hut I never heard of any on 
the pure silver grey or common grey warrens. It would 
seem, therefore, that these extraordinary colours appear only 
when the wild silver grey is mixed with a different variety. 
Why it is so, must be left to the physiologist to determine. 
It strikes me that at some distant period the wild silver 
grey breed may have been produced by a cross from the 
white and sandy Africans (obtained from some other 
country), and the wild black Rabbits. The silver grey 
skins are bought up by the fur merchants, in London in 
large quantities, from the silver grey warrens, at from 
£1 to T1 4s. per dozen, and exported to Russia and China, 
where they are made up, I believe, in imitation of the 
silver grey fox. It seems that the taste of our Rabbit 
fanciers does not agree with that of those fur-clad nations, 
as tfie colour of the pair to which the Judges awarded the 
prize at the Crystal Palace would have been by them 
infinitely less valued than the darkest specimen of the 
pair I exhibited there; whilst the size of the prize pair, 
though probably more admired, indicated a larger pro¬ 
portion of the tame breed, which would render the fur 
thinner and of an inferior quality. 
I am afraid I have already trespassed too much on your 
columns, and will reserve a few observations on the ex- 
