282 THE COTTAGE GARDENER 
like Skye terriers, were handsome jnst in proportion to their 
ugliness. We have never seen so many good birds of this 
breed in one class before. 
The various class produced many good birds. Mr. 
Coleridge’s White Polands were beautiful. Andalusians, 
Crcvc Occurs, Sultans, Jlumkins, all had their representatives. 
The Gold Sebright Bantams were better than the Silver. 
The Blacks and Whites were excellent. But perhaps one 
of the best displays ever seen for variety in Bantams was in 
the extra class. Two pens of Duckwings; Black-breasted 
Game of perfect beauty; and a singular pen of Blues, the 
first we have seen, contributed to it. 
The White Geese were not so heavy as their Grey com¬ 
petitors, yet the successful pens weighed 62J Tbs., 61 Tbs., 
and 60 Tbs. The Grey weighed 68 Tbs., 61 Tbs., and 58 Tbs. 
The heaviest were Mr. Davies’s celebrated birds, and they 
were here claimed. 
The Aylesbury Ducks were very good, and Mr. Ford took 
his old place at the head ; his three birds weighed 25 Tbs.; 
the second prize weighed 24 Tbs. What a change in a few 
years! Then a Duck was called immense if it weighed 5 Tbs.; 
now three weighing 7 Tbs. each get only a high commenda¬ 
tion. The Rouen Ducks were very perfect, but they lacked 
weight, and the various class showed numbers of beautiful 
Buenos /lyres and Call Ducks. 
Mr. Fairlie and the Rev. T. L. Fellowes took five out of 
six prizes in Turkeys with heavy birds. 
Messrs. Andrews, Baily, and Hewitt were the Judges. 
The attendance throughout was excellent, and it is 
calculated 20,000 people visited the Show during the four 
days. The sales amounted to upwards of T000, and large 
prices were given. Mr. Wakefield’s Dorkings, £25, The 
Rev. S. Donne’s, £15 15s. The first prize single Game 
cock, J110 10s. Several pens of Hamburghs at £10 10s. the 
pen. A pen of Polands, £25. A pen of Ducks, £26. A 
pen of Geese, £20. All proved the desire to possess good 
birds, and the interest this delightful pursuit excites amongst 
all classes of the community. 
It is a great pleasure to add that the Show was every 
way successful, and that this is only the first of many such 
gatherings. 
NOTTINGHAM CENTRAL POULTRY 
EXHIBITION. 
The spirited projectors of this newly-appointed Poultry 
Association held their first annual Meeting in the Mechanics’ 
Hall, Nottingham, on the 13th, 14th, and 15th of the present 
month. It proved a very successful one, and called together 
an extraordinary attendance of the surrounding nobility, 
together with great numbers of amateurs from the most 
distant counties of England, independently of an extensive 
native population. Yery considerable fears were entertained 
at the onset, that the simultaneous Meeting of the Crystal 
Palace Company would equally affect both the number of 
entries of poultry for competition, and also place an un¬ 
favourable limit on the amount of admission monies; but 
certainly we ourselves never-witnessed a more happy illustra¬ 
tion of the verity of the old axiom, “ Out of evil good 
abounds.” That the Crystal Palace regulations did bear 
heavily upon the aggregate number of pens at Nottingham 
none can gainsay; but, at the same time, the Committee 
might well congratulate themselves it, proved so; for, without 
this unforeseen restriction, it would have been*altogether im¬ 
possible for them to have accommodated nearly the numbers 
of poultry for which originally applications had been actually 
made. As matters eventually stood, however, the Hall was 
filled to repletion, comprising, of poultry alone, nearly 500 
pens, combined with half that number of pens of pigeons, 
17 entries of rabbits, and the very unique addition of no less 
than 170 cages of canaries. The latter we will at once dis¬ 
pose of by stating that the variety of plumage and conforma¬ 
tion displayed in the various classes was surprising. In 
many instances the gorgeous lustre and amount of colour 
in the birds were far beyond anything of which we ourselves 
had considered canaries capable. They approached very 
closely to the beauty of some of the preserved skins of 
foreign birds we occasionally see displayed for sale to the 
attention of naturalists, and retaining but little of the general 
>0, 1857. 
appearances that we are accusto t > view in these happy 
and truly contented songsters. T rivalry they evinced as 
to song was especially interestin am and long did they 
emulate each other, and their unci ;, eg powers caused many 
fanciers to remain for a greater ■ a of the day reviewing 
them. This part of the Exlri i -i certainly proved at¬ 
tractive, even to a degree bey. he expectation of the 
most sanguine. Of rabbits therev ere some most extra¬ 
ordinary specimens ; but, al idiot ■ ecilent of their kind, 
they had but few admirers. 
We must now allude more pa: larly to the ostensible 
objects of the Committee, viz., as > ie Poultry Show. The 
fowls were all exhibited in tin commonly known as 
Greening’s Exhibition pens. I v had been carefully 
j screened from each other by bln • • f glazed green calico. 
The pens thus arranged presen- i. to the eye of an in¬ 
experienced amateur all that mid by possibility be 
devised for comfort, general'sa and accommodation; 
but it is undoubtedly “not all that glitters,” and the 
sequel proved that such “sere - ” are at the very best 
altogether worthless and ineffect i‘ There is scarcely any 
amateur who is not fully aware : r strangely “infectious” 
the slightest mblee becomes if i anspires within ear-shot 
of truly well-bred Game fowls t such times even the 
hens become, if possible, more ir and indomitable than 
their male companions, and all ound speedily partakes of 
every essential of an Irish row. . . is impossible for those 
who may not themselves hav ■ ually witnessed such a 
scene to appreciate the downr i: impracticability of re¬ 
storing order and quietude, i, fight still continuing 
wholesale, until numbers are .ah.'other incapacitated from 
farther resistance. Nothing cs ‘ more sanguinary and 
vexatious than such outbreaks, iv yet more productive of 
certain pecuniary loss to the owners, when they un¬ 
fortunately take place within u confines of a Poultry 
Exhibition. The supposed protuion of intervening open 
wirework only increases the di mity, as in such a case, 
after seizing one another by t- head or neck, the com¬ 
batants, in their vain attempts i strike each other, press 
against the barrier, which, actings a fulcrum, the severance 
of at least a portion of flesh om one or the other is 
unavoidable. From this can -veral Game and other 
fowls were placed in a positio he very “reverse of win¬ 
ning” at the Nottingham Gena 1 oultry Show, and there 
is but little doubt it will be >:ne time before they will 
altogether recover the effects such maltreatment. We 
are most happy, however, to in our readers that, at 
! future meetings of this Sociot the possibility of a re- 
j currence of such a mishap wi >e most amply provided' 
against. 
As to the Committee them:-, -es, as a “first attempt” 
their efforts were both praisewthy and untiring; they 
personally endured the amon? actual manual labour a 
Poultry Show ever involves wit rood humour, willingness, 
and self-denial. Experience wi suggest some few other 
improvements in coming year- . i lie Mechanics’ Hall affords 
every needful accommodation • a small show, being well 
provided with light from both the side walls; it is also 
very well ventilated. 
The Spanish were good, an white faces ” all but uni¬ 
versal. There appears to u • cite an oversight, however, 
with many exhibitors, as to t- vital necessity of straight 
combs in the male specimen Many of the Nottingham 
Spanish, although in face fafiless, certainly possessed the 
most drooping combs we evt finessed anywhere. The 
show of Dorkings, more espoelly the Grey ones, was a 
most creditable triumph for ottinghamshire. It has, 
indeed, very rarely fallen to or i >t to witness so universally 
weighty and excellent a collooon. There has not as yet, 
in 1857, been any exhibition i • could equal them. The 
Game were worthy of this hoc- lighting locality; but, as 
before said, we were much gi . i to witness several of the 
most worthy specimens deprod of all chance of present 
success by the recent indu ' :e of their characteristic 
pugnacity. The Malays muster l very strongly and well. It 
is self-evident that considers 1 • ublic attention is now drawn 
to this latterly neglected vn The Cochins manifested 
improvement : a pen of pethotly black ones were de¬ 
servedly awarded the chief pimium in this class. Of the 
Hamburghs we can barely .-?uk too highly. They were 
AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION 
