210 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, December 23, 1856. 
Mine are in runs (cock and six hens to each) eighteen 
feet square, with fences or bushes of common Blackthorn 
six or seven feet high, and galvanized wire netting all round 
the bottom to prevent their getting through. They are on 
gravel, which is swept over every morning, and the gravel 
cleaned out and fresh put in every week. By this means 
they are always in high condition, and lay almost all the year 
round. 
Allow me to thank “ W. H.” for his many excellent articles 
on these fowls, as, also, many others — Mr. Tegetmeier and 
his “ Spangled pets” not forgotten.—E. B., Oxford. 
A CLASS AT EXHIBITIONS FOR SINGLE 
COCK PIGEONS. 
I think at Poultry Shows there ought to be a Class (and 
I have no doubt it would be a class that would pay as well 
as any) for single Carrier and Pouter Cock Pigeons, the same 
as for the single cocks of fowls. I will give you my reasons 
for thinking so. 
There are a great many fanciers who prefer dun and blue 
Carriers to black Carriers. Now, if a fancier has a good 
black cock Carrier, and wants duns or blues, he pairs the 
black cock to the dun or blue hen. Then, if he wants to 
exhibit black Carriers, he must unpair them to pair that 
black cock to a black hen, or they would not be a pair, as a 
pair at a Show must be of one colour. If he does separate 
them for the occasion, and shows a cock with a hen that he 
is not regularly paired to, that cock would either tight and 
kill her, or make her so that she would never be fit to show 
again. There was a case of that description at the recent 
Birmingham Show. A friend of mine, Mr. Corker, of Queen- 
street, Cheapside, London, showed white Carriers, The 
cock nearly killed the hen. I asked Mr. Corker if they were 
not paired together, and he said they were not. I did not 
ask him the reason why they were not paired, but I have no 
doubt it was because he had the cock paired to a light silver 
hen, which hen was better than his whites—whites generally 
not being so good as silver, or blues and duns, and when he 
wanted to show the whites as a pair they would not take to 
one another. The cock would have killed the hen had not 
Mr. Corker been there, and had the hen taken out and put 
into another pen. 
If there was a class for single birds it would give the fancy 
an opportunity of showing them separately, and not at all 
interfere with their breeding them to their fancy; and I 
think, if it was once suggested, it would be taken up and 
adopted. Many more reasons might be given why there 
should be a class of that description. 
If there had been such a class at Nottingham in January 
I should have entered one myself, as I have a black cock 
paired to a dun hen, and will not separate them to show 
him with a black hen.— Joseph Deaicin, 114, Green Lane, 
Sheffield. 
PITY THE SORROWS OF AN EXHIBITION 
FOWL. 
Mr. Editor, —Oh! pray do “hear me for my cause,” 
although only a poor Cochin cock; my troubles and 
anxieties bear very heavily upon me, and are sometimes 
scarcely endurable. Still I believe my owner really con¬ 
siders me the most tenderly managed of poultry, and pets 
me accordingly; whilst, in return, two of the most comely- 
looking of my wives and myself have secured for him a 
whole sideboard of Silver Cups, that are glittering at the 
opposite end of the room at this very moment. ' But I 
fancy mine is decidedly the worst side of the bargain, and 
even though “ got up ” for the purposes of poultry triumph 
by excessive feeding, the kindest of attention, and at times 
a position beside my owner’s fireside (in a new wicker 
basket, made for my express accommodation), none could 
believe the trials I have to undergo to carry out the anti¬ 
cipations of my self-satisfied benefactor. I am now 
just recovering my moult, and, to facilitate the movement, 
the chimney-corner is considered, by my master, the best 
possible appliance, and it is thus I overheard the fact that 
The Cottage Gardener is open to all poultry, and that 
then’ troubles (real or imaginary) were always fairly dis¬ 
cussed without favour or affection to any one if honestly 
represented. Then do grant permission to an experienced 
Exhibition Cochin to tell his own ungarnished troubles. 
As I hinted before, my success hitherto has been an 
almost uninterrupted run of good luck, so far as master’s 
triumphs are considered; and, to gain this end, thousands 
of miles have I travelled in all weathers, exposed to the 
diversity of “receptions” that have everywhere awaited 
me, with no small amount in the aggregate of compulsory 
imprisonment into the bargain, and those who now visit 
master complain, “the old cock begins to look fady.” It 
is truth, too; I myself begin to feel fady likewise, and the 
causes that make me so I must feebly expose. Even to¬ 
night a real host of acquaintances have been calling almost 
incessantly to discuss the probability of my future position, 
as I hear a great number of Poultry Shows are contemplated, 
and a very shiver comes over my whole frame when I find, 
by their conversation, that I am compelled, against my will, 
to be present throughout every one where the offer of plate 
prizes tempts the cupidity of my owner. 
Even had this sad news not affected my rest, another 
circumstance has still more positively prohibited even its most 
distant approach, for more than a dozen times I have been 
pulled out of the basket for closer examination, and opinions 
as diverse as possible have been ventured, whilst the fumes 
of tobacco have added seriously to my indisposition; but I 
find the general result is, I must go, right or wrong—“ never 
venture never win; ” and so I will tell you briefly that I 
have to stand the hardships of seven competitions in the 
space of nine weeks, and I am expected to look equally well 
at the conclusion of this trying ordeal as heretofore. It is 
no use, I feel I cannot do it; the very anticipation of such a 
combination of afflictions forces me to regret I am every¬ 
where considered “ a heauty,” and to deplore I was not 
hatched a homely-looking barn-door fowl, with the liberty 
of independence, whilst violent and sudden death by the 
hands of the cook would be merciful treatment compared 
to the inflictions now in store for me. Here I have 
increased warmth artificially applied; in a few days I shall 
be breathing an atmosphere below freezing. My present 
diet is replete with stimulants in golore, hot toast and 
ale, ready-cooked meat, and various other delicacies; some 
few days onwards my sole diet will be indifferent corn, and 
cold, icy water. Yet those around me say, “ the change will 
not hurt me,” and that, “ like some old woman’s eels ” (all 
the gentlemen seem to know her), “I have become 
habituated to it, and can stand it without a wriggle." But 
it is useless for me to swagger, who have the trials to 
undergo; so here comes plump the hard truth, “ I am dying 
by inches.” 
Could you believe it, Mr. Editor? I am to be despatched 
from home to-morrow, wet or dry, more than two hundred 
miles, not by a single rail, but by railways; and my admirers 
are canvassing the fact, that I shall have to remain for two 
hours at the --branch railway-station waiting for the 
coming train. This is one of the unavoidable vicissitudes 
of my life ; but I hope to get to the end of my journey if not 
delayed, and to find a comfortable exhibition-pen awaiting 
me. Still, I have been deceived before (some committees are 
always behindhand), and if so now, 1 must be content to 
| put my head behind my wing, and stand the cutting blast 
till morning. It is then I feel how ill-advised dining-room 
kindnesses, just left behind me, have augmented my present 
sufferings. The superintending committee each put on an 
extra top-coat, and take a glass of warm grog “ to keep the 
cold out,” but I get nothing. The next morning I am at 
length penned for the Judges’ inspection ; they say, “ I don’t 
look so well as I used to.” How can I ? But an order has 
been forwarded with me, that I am not , after three days’ wear 
and tear, to be sent home again, but, after having patiently 
endured the whole period a draught almost equal to that of a 
winnowing machine, I am to be remitted to another similar 
meeting, to undergo a repetition of the like rack of con¬ 
stitution without any respite whatever ! This will last two 
days. Then I find I shall come home for a week, “ to be 
doctored and got well again.” I shall then start afresh on 
my travels till all seven Shows are completed. Can poultry- 
flesh endure it ? 
