THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, September 22, 1857. 401 
to them such pursuits as they are fitted for. Do you want 
eggs or fowls, or both? We advise all who have the con¬ 
venience for doing so to keep some Cochins or Brahmas 
for winter layers, and Dorkings for table birds in the 
summer. 
The first duty to be performed at this time in a poultry- 
yard is to get rid of all faulty birds. They are now good 
sized and full of meat. They are young aud tender. They 
will now make a return for the food they have consumed; 
but if they are kept longer every grain they eat is a waste, 
and if, as we assume, they are early hatched, they will get 
harder and less fit for the table every day. 
But if fowls are wanted for laying only there is no 
occasion to be so strict, because a clean-legged Cochin, or a 
red-faced Spanish, or a single-combed Hamburgh, will lay 
as well as a first prize bird of either sort, provided they are 
young. This proviso is most important. No condition or 
feeding will make an old bird lay through the winter. You 
may force her to lay a few eggs, but it will exceed all your 
powers to induce continuous laying from old hens. The 
smallest place should be given up to the layers, and the 
table fowls should have the run of the yard and field. 
Cochins bear confinement, and do not suffer from it. They 
will lay you as many eggs, and they will look as cheerful 
and as ruddy, in a place of eight yards square as if they had 
as many acres to roam over. They will begin laying in 
November, and will keep on till February; they will then 
want to sit, and that will be just the time when your 
Dorkings are laying. We think, then, that by proper arrange¬ 
ment, a poultry-yard may be now so managed as to secure 
eggs all the winter and early chickens in the spring at small 
expenso. We have treated here of poultry for table purposes 
only ; but there is no reason why, by proper selection, good 
exhibition birds should not be found in yards where many 
are bred. 
DELAY IN SENDING DIRECTION LABELS. 
Twice this season I have paid entrance fees for the ex¬ 
hibition of poultry, and returned the proper forms sent me 
by the Secretaries for that purpose. In each case I have 
been unable to forward my birds in time for the show, in 
consequence of the delay in transmitting to me the direction 
labels, whereby I have been put to great inconvenience, 
besides being deprived of the chance of gaining prizes and 
the sale of my birds. I reside five miles from, and con¬ 
sequently am not able at short notice to get my poultry con¬ 
veyed to, a railway station. Again, many towns where the 
principal shows are held are two days’ post from hence. 
If, therefore, a show is to take place say on the 10th 
of the month, the direction labels posted at Birmingham, 
Gloucester, or Bradford on the 6tli would not reach me 
till the afternoon of the 8th. How, therefore, would it be 
possible for me to get the birds conveyed to either place in 
time for the exhibition ? Of course other breeders are 
subject to the same inconvenience, which might be easily 
remedied in the following manner:—If on receipt of the 
entrance money the Secretary were to forward to the ex¬ 
hibitor the proper direction labels for his baskets, it would 
be a sufficient guarantee for the latter, and would prove 
much more economic, as regards the saving of postage 
stamps, paper, and envelopes, to the promoters of the show. 
— G. Ray. 
PIGEON MATCHES. 
There are very few subjects on which a greater amount 
of misconception prevails than respecting the kind, ot 
Pigeons employed in conveying messages or in flying 
homing matches, and the method of training and employing 
them. Most persons, misled by the name, imagine that 
Carriers are selected for this purpose, whereas they are 
rarely if ever used, being far too heavy and slow of flight 
for the purpose. In London the birds flown are, in the 
great majority of cases, Shinnums, or such birds as may be 
produced by crossing a Dragon with a strong - flying 
Tumbler or other variety: thus very good homing birds 
may be bred between a Dragon and an Owl. But little I 
regard is paid to colour, blues and chequers being most 
common. Some of the self-coloured blues are, apart from all 
fancy considerations, very showy, handsome birds. 
Those of our readers who are accustomed to look in our 
celebrated sporting contemporary known as Bell’s Life need 
not to be informed that such paragraphs as the following 
are of weekly occurrence :—“ Bill Smith is willing to fly his 
blue hen against Tom Jones’s chequer for thirty miles on the 
Oxford road for _£2 a side. His money is ready at the Tub 
and Tinker, Brick Lane.” These matches are generally 
flown with old birds; but another common practice is to fly 
young birds of some three months or so for shorter dis¬ 
tances in a sort of general race. The birds are entered 
shortly after they have left the nest, whilst their voice is of 
that peculiar infantile character that has caused them to be 
designated “ squeakers.” Each bird entered is indelibly 
stamped on the wing feathers, and a weekly payment, 
varying from sixpence to half a crown, is made by each 
contributor. The birds entered are practised in different 
directions around London as much as possible, and on a 
day previously fixed they are all taken to the general 
house of meeting, and sent from thence ten or twelve miles 
out of town, the particular road being determined by lot, 
thus rendering it necessary that the birds should have been 
previously practised in every direction. The birds are all 
let loose together, and the first one shown at the house of 
meeting wins the sweepstakes. In order to equalise the 
distance that each bird has to be carried after having been 
caught at his own home, the place of meeting is usually 
situated as nearly as possible half way between the two 
extreme subscribers, and those who live intermediate dis¬ 
tances are required to run a certain distance past the ren¬ 
dezvous and return. Where any considerable distance in¬ 
tervenes a relay of swift runners is appointed, so that not 
a moment may be lost. 
The training these birds receive is simply flying them 
short distances at first, which are gradually increased in 
length. If possible the birds are practised in the direction 
in which they are required to fly, as it is found that no time 
is then lost in flying round in gradually increasing circles 
until some familiar object is observed, for the landmarks are 
then familiar to the bird. 
Amongst the erroneous ideas prevalent on the subject is 
the notion that the birds will fly backwards and forwards, to 
and fro, whereas they will only fly in one direction, namely, 
to their own home. 
Another error consists in the supposition that birds can 
carry letters of the ordinary size tied under the wing—a 
fatal hinderance to their flight. When messages are sent by 
them they must be written on a narrow strip of thin paper, 
say three inches by three quarters of an inch, rolled round 
the shank of the leg, and secured by a thread. In flight 
the foot is drawn up into the feathers, and no resistance is 
offered to the passage of the bird through the air.—W. B. 
Tegetmeier. 
A POULTRY ADVENTURE. 
“Please, sir, there’s four more chickens gone last night.” 
This met me when I came down in the morning. 
“Well,” said I, “it must be seen to.” 
“I heard,” said a maid-servant, “a great uproar among 
them in the night.” i 
I looked very serious, and repeated, “ This must be seen 
to; ” adding, “ Next time you hear an uproar call me.” “ You 
know," said I to the man, “it is too bad to lose three or 
four every night in this way." 
He looked down and round the room till his eyes met a 
favourite white cat, and then said something which ended 
in “ cat.” 
Two little girls made a rush directly, and pussy was 
caught up, while they indignantly denied the imputation on 
their favourite. 
There were a great many chickens in a small orchard of 
about three quarters of an acre. The hens were all under 
rips. Everything was examined during the day, and search 
was made for evidence to detect the culprit; it was un¬ 
availing, and the cat was suspected. The little girls hid 
her before they went to bed. 
