290 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, August 4, 1857. 
COCHIN-CHINA’S REMONSTRANCE. 
I wish to know, Mr. Editor, why the great Chinese variety 
of fowls to which I belong should he snubbed. I am rather 
modest in saying anything in our behalf, but I know our 
race are favourites with you, and I know my master would 
not be without us, since we provide him with so many fresh- 
laid eggs through the winter months, and which he could 
not otherwise obtain for love or money. But, Mr. Editor, 
is it not too bad that we should be snubbed after the buzz 
we made in the country four or five years ago, and sold for 
such high prices that we were the chief cause of what was 
called the poultry mania, and consequently the extension of 
exhibitions from one end of the country to the other? Now, 
I say it is too bad that we should be snubbed; for, although 
justice is dealt out to us at Birmingham and other large Shows 
by dividing us into four or five different classes according to 
our respective colours, yet at Bradford—yes, I say at Brad¬ 
ford— Cochins of all colours and Brahmas are actually 
knocked into one class, whilst in the same prize-list I find 
Game are divided into three, Hamburghs into four, Polish 
into two, Bantams into two, and Ducks into two classes, 
thereby intimating to the world that any or all of the other 
kinds of poultry are more worthy of patronage than we are. 
[We think the remonstrant is quite right, and that the 
Bradford Committee are wrong. There are, or ought to be, 
three classes of Cochin-Chinas : 1. Buff and Cinnamon; 2. 
Partridge and other Browns; 3. White.] 
CAPTAIN HORNBY’S DORKINGS. 
I quite agree with “ W. X. W.” “ that promotion in the 
poultry ranks by purchase should not be represented as a 
victory achieved by competition.” I am obliged to him for 
his courteous mention of myself, and for giving me an 
opportunity of explaining more clearly than “ W.” seems to 
have done the real facts of my case, in which, however, 
“ W. X. W.” is entirely mistaken. 
When Mr. Wright turned over his Dorkings to me (and a 
very good lot they were) I told him that I thought I could 
have “ beaten him with my own stock, and that, for the sake 
of experiment, I would show my best pen against his best 
pen.” This was accordingly done at Prescot, where I showed 
a pen of Dorkings (with which, as chickens, I had won the 
Cup at Liverpool in January) against Mr. Wright’s two best 
hens and the cock which he had formerly bought from Mr. 
Ulloch. The Judge awarded the first prize to my own pen, 
and highly commended Mr. Wright’s birds. 
My own adult Dorkings also took first prize at Salisbury; 
but I won the single cock first prize then with a cock I bought 
from Mr. Wright. This is indeed the only prize I have 
won with my purchase from him, as I understand that at 
Sheffield (where I won first prize with Dorking chickens) 
Mr. Wright’s adult birds which I had sent are passed 
unnoticed, but I suspect this is owing to their being inclined 
to moult. It would be very much against my wish to “fail 
in justice ” to Mr. Wright, who still takes a warm interest 
in his former birds, and I hope this explanation will con¬ 
vince “W. X. W.” that “any victory of mine, though a 
friendly one, will have been obtained strictly by competition, 
and not by purchase .”—W. W. Hornby. 
THE HEDGEHOG A FOE TO CHICKENS. 
About ten days ago one of a brood of Dorking chickens 
about a month old was found inside a wire pen on our lawn 
killed and half eaten. We baited a trap the next night with 
the remains of the chick, and a large hedgehog was caught, 
but we did not suspect hint a« the criminal; however, the 
gardener killed him. A few days after two more of the same 
brood were destroyed. The night before last, hearing the 
cries of the young poultry again, I roused a servant, who, 
hurrying down, found them in great alarm, and a second 
hedgehog decamping with a young chicken in his mouth. Is 
not the hedgehog usually considered to live only on roots 
and vegetables? I had never imagined them to be car¬ 
nivorous.—H. Y. 
[It is not at all extraordinary that the hedgehogs de¬ 
stroyed your chickens, for they are known to kill leverets, 
frogs, snakes, and various kinds of insects, and to have 
driven a sitting hen from her nest to feed upon the eggs. 
That the hedgehog is a destroyer of pheasants’ and par¬ 
tridges’ eggs is Inown to most gamekeepers. It is true that 
White, of Selborne, records the fact that the hedgehog will 
eat plantain roots, and, when domesticated, which it is very 
easily, it will eat scraps of vegetables and bread, besides 
cockroaches and crickets; but it chiefly lives upon animal 
food.] 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Exeter Poultry Show. —“In your report of the Exeter Poultry 
Show, in the class of White-crested Black Polands, you placed Mr. 
Dawson first and Mr. Edwards second, instead of which I gained the 
first prize and Mr. Edwards the second.”— George Smith Fox. 
White Feathers in Golden Hamburghs. —“I had seven Golden- 
spangled Hamburgh chickens hatched eleven weeks ago, but six have 
white feathers on their wings more or less distinct. Is there any pro¬ 
bability of a change to the true golden colour, or must I condemn them 
as spurious ? They were hatched from eggs purchased from an adver¬ 
tiser in your columns.”—E. A. S. 
[It is more than probable the offending white feathers will disappear. 
They are common to many breeds when chickens, and they disappear 
when the adult plumage begins. Spanish chickens always have them, 
and Cochin chickens very often. We should advise you to put a dark 
cock to these pullets next year.] 
White Game Fowls. —“ I have lately purchased a hatch of white 
Game fowls. I am not much acquainted with that variety. Firstly, 
should the hackle and saddle at any age or time of the year be a pale 
straw colour? Secondly, do you consider them as hardy and courageous 
as other Game fowls ? Thirdly, would you reject a pullet with pale yellow 
legs?”—S. E. 
[Straw-coloured feathers are very common in all white fowls. They 
are not desirable, neither are they a disqualification. As a rule no white 
fowls are as hardy as darker ones. Game may almost be deemed ex¬ 
ceptions. They are quite as courageous. The colour of the legs is a 
matter of taste. Yellow are the most showy, but many consider white 
more pure. If you purpose breeding for white by all means reject the 
yellow-legged pullet.] 
Hen Self-set. —“ Perhaps some of your readers may recollect that I 
mentioned, through The Cottage Gardener, last September, that 
one of my hens had established her nest on a wall nine feet in height. 
She has not forgotten her old haunt, and a few days since I brought her 
from her elevated position with seventeen chickens, she having hatched* 
every egg. Her first brood this year in the same place consisted of 
twelve. Will you kindly insert this in your paper as a confirmation of 
what I then asserted, viz., that hens left to their natural instinct are 
most prolific? Can you tell me the cause of my hens not laying ? I have 
ten, and get but three or four eggs a day. They are fed on barley and 
vegetables, and have plenty of exercise.”— Henbane. 
[Your hens are, perhaps, old; perhaps broody; perhaps requiring 
that rest to their egg system which all birds need for some period, 
though varying in duration.] 
Rouen Ducks (C. L. G.). —Write to any or all of the prize-takers at 
recent Poultry Shows. State your wants and ask for prices. 
Packing Eggs (E. B. R .).—There is a difference of opinion as to 
the position in which eggs should be placed for travelling, but we can 
testify that we have sent eggs by rail two hundred miles, laid on their 
sides and packed in oats, and more than two-thirds of the eggs pro¬ 
duced strong chickens. We have sent your other query to Mr. Brent, 
and will publish his answer next week. 
LONDON MARKETS. —August 3rd. 
COVENT GARDEN. 
An excellent supply of both Fruit and Vegetables, fully equal to suit 
the terms of all classes of buyers, which have been numerous during this 
real summer weather. Importations comprise Greetigages, Orleans and 
Precoce de Tours Plums, Endive, Artichokes, and Tomatoes; and several 
cargoes of West India Pines, sometimes 40,000 a day, have changed 
hands at the brokers during the past fortnight, the season for which, 
however, will soon be over. 
POULTRY. 
The hot weather and the decline of the London season have had at 
great effect on the market during 
diminution in the prices. 
Large fowls.. 6s. 6d. to 7s. Od. each. 
Smaller do. 4s. Od. to 5s. Od. ,, 
Chickens .. 2s. 6d. to 3s. fid. ,, 
Goslings.6s. to 6s. 6d. ,, 
Ducklings.. 3s. 3d. to 3s. 9d. ,, 
the past week. There is a sensible 
Guinea Fowls 0s. Od. to 0s. Od. each. 
Pigeons. Qd. to lOd. ,, 
Rabbits.... Is. 5d. to Is. 6d. ,, 
Wild ditto. 7d. to Qd. ,, 
Leverets.... 3s. Od. to 4s. 6d. ,, 
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 Row, in 
the Parish of Christ Church, City of London.—August 4, 1857. 
