I 
274 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND C 0UNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, July 28, 1857. 
“ Capt. Hornby at last achieved a victory over Mr. Wright’s 
long victorious pens,” can hardly he correct; at any rate, I 
cannot reconcile it with an advertisement which has ap¬ 
peared for many weeks past in your columns, that “ Captain 
Hornby has purchased the whole of Mr. Wright’s stock of 
Dorkings and Bantams.” 
I am quite sure that Captain Hornby is the last man in 
the world who would like to be complimented for a victory 
obtained by purchase, and not by competition, and it is not 
justice to Mr. Wright to describe him as being defeated 
when he has disposed of his stock; and it is only right that 
your readers should know that promotion in the poultry 
ranks by purchase should not be represented as a victory 
achieved by competition.—W. X. W. 
SKINNUM CARRIERS.—FOOD FOR PIGEONS. 
Will you tell me the .characteristics and value of the 
Skinnum Carriers, and whether they are good breeders, as 
I have a pair of old ones, aged about two years, but they 
have taken possession of a fowl’s nest, and are sitting on an 
egg without laying ? Could you likewise tell me the proper 
food for Spanish Runts, as mine do not get fat, though I 
give them as much barley as they like to eat, and plenty of 
room ? And what difference will it make (if any) in pairing 
a young bird with one of its parents ?—S. T. 
[The Skinnum is one of the lowest in the scale of fancy 
Pigeons. They are generally good breeders. Their only 
value is sharp flying. They are bred from a mixture of 
Tumbler and Dragoon or Dovehouse Pigeons. Barley is not 
considered a good food for Pigeons confined ; give them old 
tares and the smallest beans you can procure. A change of 
maize or Indian corn may help to fatten the Runts. If the 
Pigeons are Tumblers, Jacobins, or Turbits, a young bird 
paired with its parent will reduce the size, which in these 
breeds is considered a beauty; but in most breeds such 
diminutive and delicate specimens are not admired, and 
in-and-in breeding is not to he recommended. We should 
suspect your Skinnum hen is barren. Barren birds will sit 
and hatch if eggs are given to them. A fresh hen had 
better be procured—10d. or Is. will get one in London. 
Barren birds are convenient as nurses, as they will take eggs 
and rear them at any time.—B. P. B.] 
Class 7.—FRILLED PIGEONS. 
Variety 1 .— THE JACOBIN (Columba Cypria 
cucullata). 
French. German. 
Pigeon Nonnain Capitcin. Zopp-oder Perucken Taube. 
other smooth-headed; some have naked and others fea¬ 
thered feet; the hoods very erect and large.” His plate 
represents a neat Jacobin Pigeon, with short beak, large 
hood, small chain, and heavily-feathered feet, which plate 
is smaller in comparison with his others of Pigeons: a 
number of turned-crowned nondescripts also follow as 
Cyprise. 
Mr. Moore, 1735, says, “ The Jack is, if true bred, the 
smallest of all Pigeons—the smaller the better.” He also 
notices two varieties. “ Some are feathered-legged and 
footed, others are not; and both sorts are equally esteemed 
according to the various inclinations of the different 
fanciers.” 
The English and French names are derived from this 
Pigeon’s having a clean white head, enveloped, as it were, 
in a hood of dark feathers, resembling the shaven crown 
of a monk partially covered with a cowl. The German name 
signifies having a wig. 
The true aristocratic Jack of the old fanciers is not now 
to he met with in England, if, indeed, it may still be found 
on the Continent. 
The pure and high-bred Jacobin hears the same relation 
to the Pigeon now called a Jacobin as the fancy Short¬ 
faced Tumbler does to its coarser-flying cousin. Their 
points are as follow : a short beak, the feathers at the back 
of the head reversed, and erected so as to form a close, 
compact hood, which arrangement of the plumage is con¬ 
tinued down the sides of the neck as low as the bend of 
the wings, forming what is designated the chain, at the 
ends of which the feathers spread all round, exposing a 
spot of white down : the longer this chain is, and the closer 
and more compact the feathers lie, the more they are es¬ 
teemed. The eye in all varieties must be a clear pearl 
colour. They are very neat Pigeons — the smaller the 
! better : the body slightly elongated. 
The marking or colouring is that designated piebald or 
baldhead; that is to say, having the body either red or 
black (for those are the chief colours), they must have a 
clean white head, tail, rump, and thighs, with from seven 
to ten white feathers at the extremity of each wing. Yel¬ 
low Baldhead Jacobins are not uncommon, nor are quite 
white. I have seen both Blue and Dun Baldhead Jacks, 
and some are mottled on the shoulders, which I believe are 
not generally so much admired. In Germany quite black 
are also occasionally to be had, and there, too, I have seen 
some with feathered feet. 
The Ruff may be considered as a sub-variety of this breed; 
they are larger, coarser, and less compact and neat in hood 
and chain than the Jacobin; the feathers of the hood and 
chain are longer, looser, and more irregular, appearing 
rough and disordered: hence the name; in other respects 
it resembles an inferior Jacobin. 
The Capuchin is also a sub-variety or mongrel of the 
Jacobin; it is simply a poor Jack without a chain. Both the 
sub-varieties are now not cultivated; nevertheless Jacobins 
are not nearly so good as they might he if more pains were 
taken in breeding them to a high standard.—B. P. Brent. 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Poultry Shows (Rev, F. T.).—We send special reporters to all the 
chief Poultry Shows, but have to trust to friends for notes and early 
prize-lists of others. We specially requested the Secretary of the 
Leamington Show to forward us one ; but we suppose-that in the hurry 
of business he forgot our request. Any one sending us an early prize- 
list, with or without notes on the Show, confers a favour upon us. 
Incubator (A Subscriber ).—Our statement that an incubator is an 
unprofitable machine is founded upon the information that several 
private individuals bought them and gave them up. We have no know¬ 
ledge of its being employed to hatch spring chickens for the London and 
Liverpool markets. It is a good hatcher; but then the failure begins— 
the chickens cannot be reared. If any one can give us information 
relative to the incubator’s profitable employment we shall be very much 
obliged. We have no prejudice against the machine. 
Hatching Guinea Fowls’ Eggs (J. Driver ).—May is the best 
month for placing them under a hen. It is useless to do so now; Your 
utmost care would not succeed in rearing the chicks. You will find 
fuller particulars in our manual, “ The Poultry Book for the Many.” 
; 
I 
Ulysses Aldrovandus, 1000, in his second volume of 
“ Ornithology,” published at Bologna, says of the Columba 
Cypria cucullata , “ There are two kinds, one hooded, the 
London: Printed by Hugh Barclay, Winchester High-street, in 
the Parish of Saint Mary Kalendar; and Published for the Proprietors 
at The Cottage Gardener Office, No. 20 , Paternoster Bow, in 
the Parish of Christ Church, City of London.—July 28, 1857. 
