THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, June 1C, 1857. 
178 
have been paired with Black Red hens; and why? Most 
probably because Duckwing Bantam liens were not so easy 
to manufacture as Duckwing cocks. 
I believe no such thing as a perfect pen of Duckwing 
Bantams is yet to be met with, or it would most pro¬ 
bably have been forthcoming ere this. Probably this season 
may produce birds passing off as such, but I fear with 
little real pretension to the name except in feather. One of 
the cock birds exhibited last season had much the appear¬ 
ance of a mongrel-bred Bantam, formerly possessed of a 
double comb and white ear-lobe, till these unornamental 
appendages had been displaced, and their owner became, by 
this metamorphosis, a nmcli-coveted and exceedingly rare 
specimen of fancy poultry. What some Poultry Judges 
have been about, to award prizes and commendations to 
such pens made up with a cock of this description and hens 
of quite a different variety, has been puzzling to some less 
successful exhibitors who have exhibited uniform pens of 
Black Reds in competition with them, and could not compre¬ 
hend why a badly-matched set of fowls in the Bantam 
classes should be set before a pen of well-paired birds, and 
perfect specimens both in feather and form. 
I do not wish by these remarks to disparage either good 
birds or the exertions of fanciers, who have done their 
utmost to produce miniature Duckwing Game fowls ; but I 
do contend that the birds hitherto exhibited as such are not 
entitled to the praises and honours that have been bestowed 
upon them, and that our Judges have acted erroneously 
where they have awarded them prizes.— Equity. 
POLANDS SHOULD HAVE COMBS. 
Since my query appeared in The Cottage Gardener, 
whether the Crested fowls should have a comb or not in the 
shape of two spikes, I have been carefully looking at the 
various letters you have published on the question, and am 
happy to perceive that the majority say they should have 
combs. 
It is scarcely necessaiy to refer to those gentlemen who 
agree with me. I therefore come to the opposing letter of 
“ C. E. C.,” the initials, I presume, of a successful exhibitor 
of Crested fowls, the remarks conveyed in which may perhaps 
stagger beginners, but not one of, perhaps, as long breeding 
and reading experience as himself. In Hamburgh fowls, 
now improperly called Polish, “ C. E. 0.,” in No. 448, begs 
permission to be allowed “ to correct the monstrous asser¬ 
tions, &c.,” and then proceeds to denounce the presence of a 
comb in the Crested birds. Now, I beg at once to protest 
against this “ monstrous correction,” and to put two ques¬ 
tions to “ C. E. C.” to test the point. Will he guarantee 
that the finest specimens that can he produced of Crested birds 
of any variety without combs will not produce chickens that 
shall have combs ? If lie cannot guarantee that, and I believe 
he cannot, there is an extinguisher on “ C. E. C.’s” correc¬ 
tions. “ C. E. C.” says Crested fowls should not have combs ; 
dame Nature says they should, to support the crest in front, 
and accordingly gives it. “ C. E. C.” talks of the “ malforma¬ 
tion of a comb,” &c.; I am not in favour of malformations. 
I now come to the second and more serious question, as 
affecting judgments at Poultry Shows. Will “ C. E. C.” or 
other gentlemen exhibitors of Crested fowls without combs 
undertake to say they have never dubbed the combs and 
wattles, which in like manner appears to be an abomina¬ 
tion? The publication of replies to these questions may 
lead to some interesting facts for the uninitiated. I believe 
the Judges are placed in a false position on the subject, and 
the sooner it is rectified the better. “ C. E. C.” would wring 
the neck of the first chicken showing “the noble comb,” 
and “ R. P. W.” would wring the neck of every one that did 
not do so, as he invariably for twenty years has done, having 
found that birds deficient in the well-formed spikes of an 
inch in length, and pointing forwards to support the comb 
(crest?), or reduced to mere tubercles of the skin, were 
wretched, puny things, deficient in virility, and, if not early 
consigned to the spit, would die on the dunghill. 
In the same number alluded to (No. 448) appears a letter, 
signed “ Perruquier,” which may have been written by 
“ C. E. C.” for all I know, so great is the value of an incog¬ 
nito. I must, however, beg to dissent from the logic which 
it contains. “ Perruquier ” informs us that “ in all poultry 1 
pieces of the old Flemish painters a cock is figured with two 1 
spikes in front, and a something on his head between a lark- 
crest and a topknot.” It is a pity the gentleman did not 
call it a perruque. I should, however, recommend him to 
have another look at the said paintings, or engravings there¬ 
from, which are numerous, and he will find it a “ very 
palpable ” crest, floating, globular, not at all resembling a 
lark-crest. The birds so depicted were the Hamburgh fowls. 
“ Perruquier ” then informs us, “ But this is not a Polish 
cock,” &c. What, then, is a Polish cock ? When did it j 
arise? How begot—how nourished ? Reply with the pedi¬ 
gree of “ the Polish cock.” 
Notwithstanding the convincing reply of “ The Comb 
Champion,” which will, I have no doubt, carry conviction to , 
unprejudiced minds, I shall proceed a little further to assist ! 
“Perruquier” and “ C. E. C.” in the elucidation which j 
your readers may naturally expect from parties who lay 
down the law. In former letters in your paper I have j 
pointed to those Gold and Silver-crested fowls known from 1 
so remote a time as Hamburgh fowls. 
Mr. Tegetmeier lately, in a letter in The Cottage Gar¬ 
dener, stated that he had got a work 100 years old relative 
to the table qualities of Polish and Hamburgh fowls (the 
former, I believe, meant the White-crested Black, the latter 
the Gold and Silver-spangled or Laced birds). He re¬ 
gretted the work in question did not give the description. It 
is a matter of gratification that since his letter appeared I 
am enabled to supply it by the discovery of “A New Die 
tionary of Natural History, or Compleat Universal Display 
of Animated Nature.” The title-page is lost, so I cannot 
give the author’s name. The plates bear the date of 1786. 
No doubt some of your numerous readers can supply this 
deficiency. In it I find the Hamburgh cock. “ The Ham- j 
burgh cock is a very stately fowl. His bill is thick at the 
base, but ends in an acute point; his eyes are of a fine yel¬ 
low colour, encircled with dark-coloured feathers, under j 
which there are tufts of black ones which cover his ears. 
His comb, which is reddish, reaches about half way over his 
head, the hind part being covered with dark-coloured fea¬ 
thers inclining to black. His throat and gills are of the 
same colour, with an admixture of orange and red feathers 
waving round his neck, which are black at the extremities. | 
His breast and belly are of a dark colour spotted with black, 
and his thighs, as well as the lower part of his belly, are of 1 
a shining velvet black. The superior parts of his neck and 
back are of a darkish red; his tail consists of red, orange- 
coloured, and shining black feathers; his legs are of a leaden 
hue, and the bottoms of his feet are yellow.” 
I now leave the question for the present to the considera- 1 
tion of the no-comb gentry.— R. P. Williams. 
ADVICE GRATIS. 
My grandfather, a shrewd old man, a lawyer, used to tell 
a story of advice gratis. I will tell it to you, and whether 
my counsel ought to be placed in the same category, and re¬ 
garded at the same marketable value, is for those who read 
to determine. 
A worthy old farmer friend, a client, on meeting my 
relative, began, as is usual in more counties than one, to 
descant upon the weather, the hardness of the times, and 
the scarcity of money, &c., and ended by a kind of half¬ 
begging, sideways sort of mode of getting advice gratis. 
“ Well, Sir, what d’ye think ? You know the little matter 
of business we had together about neighbour Jones’s few 
acres of old ruffit * I bought ? Well, now, I let a decentish 
sort of a chap in I thought, but if lie arn’t a turned out a 
rig’lar queer un, and us have a been talking if so be us drop 
upon en in some et arter this fashion (naming the plan) ’twill 
be a sarving the rascal right—don’t you think so, lawyer ? 
I s'pose there ain’t no other way ?” 
Grandfather.—“ Oh ! exactly—very good. ’Pon my word it 
is really raining. Good-by, farmer.” ( Hurries away.) 
Some short time after the farmer cuts granddad off going 
to market, as was usual for gentlemen in a country town 
some century since, and began his brain-sucking by ex- 
* Rough land. 
