288 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, February 1, 1859. 
When the mother is about to leave her brood, and the young are 
quite unequal to run the gauntlet of the yard, at roosting time 
I take three or four of them, and slip them under the wings of a 
hen, on the nest, who wants to sit. I have found she clucks to 
them immediately. If she does not leave the nest with them in 
the morning, I repeat the same at night, and from that time the 
little ones have a more devoted, unselfish friend, than their own 
mother has become, whom jealousy prompts to be more attentive 
than she otherwise would. The last instance in my experience 
is this. In the autumn, a Dorking hen stole a nest, and at the 
end of September walked off with thirteen chickens. I felt sure 
I should never rear half, as I had no warm, sunny shed to keep 
them in. A Cochin hen wanted to sit, and I gave some of them 
to her in the manner described. When they were about three 
weeks old, the strong ones roosted with tire mother: the weakly 
ones took to the Cochin. To this day, she is kind and attentive 
to them, never finding a delicate morsel without calling them to 
partake of it. I can only answer, however, for Cochin and Dorking 
fowls accepting the office of foster-mother.—Quis. 
ATTACHMENT OF THE HOUSE MAETIN TO 
ITS YOUNG. 
Some few years ago, a pair of martins built their nest under 
the eaves of a public-house, in the Military Road, Canterbury. 
One of the window shutters of the upper room was fastened 
back, and the lower part of the nest was plastered against 
the upper part of it, and projected an inch or two over 
the panel. I had frequently watched the old birds pay great 
attention to their offspring; for I lived, at the time of 
which I speak, exactly opposite the house in question. The 
previous night had been very boisterous, and when I looked 
out of my bedroom window in the morning, the window-shutter 
had broken away from the fastening, and the fragments of the 
nest and the callous young were lying on the footpath. The 
landlady of the house came out, picked the young birds up, un¬ 
injured by the fall, put them into a basket with some hay, and 
nailed the basket to the wall, as nearly as possible in the place 
of the original nest, and the old birds continued to feed the 
young ones as regularly as though no accident had happened 
to their domicile. When the young birds were fledged, they 
flew away, and, I suppose, went to spend their Christmas in a 
much more genial latitude. — AV. Brent, 2, Military Hoad , 
Canterbury. 
POINTS OF BELGIAN CANARIES. 
Mr. Thos. Ridley, in The Cottage Gardener of January 
4th, 1859, desires to know where I get my law, or rule, for 
asserting that the Belgian Canary should be straight and erect, 
and not hooped, or forming part of a circle ? I am quite willing 
to inform him. I got it among the fanciers and breeders of that 
variety of Canary on the Continent. And I have been much 
puzzled to know why the English fanciers have adopted one of 
the ugliest shapes for beauty. There is no accounting for tastes. 
I can only conjecture, that, as the Continental fanciers arc very 
choice of their best birds, the majority of those imported were 
inferior, or hooped, and that English fanciers, knowing no better, 
took it for a good point. I was much disappointed with the 
Belgian and German Canaries at the Crystal Palace Show.— 
B. P. Brent. 
PIGEONS. 
POINTS OF TIIE YARIETIES IN ACCORDANCE 
WITH THE PROPOSED PRIZE LIST. 
First Division. High Fancy Birds (four hinds'). 
I. The English Carrier, or King of Pigeons. — The five 
properties may be briefly enumerated as :—1st, wattle; 2nd, eye ; 
3rd, head; 4th, beak; 5th, length. The varieties should have 
five classes:—1st, Black; 2nd, Dun; 3rd, Blue; 4th, White; 
5th, any other. 
In exhibitions, I am of opinion that no class should be given 
to Horsemen or Dragons, because they are simply inferior 
Carriers ; and it is impossible to define where they cease to bo 
either Dragons, or Horsemen, and become Carriers. 
II. The Shoet-eaced Tumbler, or Fairy Queen. —The five 
properties are briefly 1st, head ; 2nd, beak ; 3rd, eye ; 4th, 
shape; 5th, colour. The varieties should, at least, have five 
classes :—1st, the Almond; 2nd, Mottles, and whole colours; 
3rd, Baldheaded ; 4th, Bearded ; 5tli, any other variety. 
It may be advisable to separate the Mottles from the whole, or 
self-coloured birds ; but an extra class for other varieties should 
always, I think, be added, in which such as Magpie Tumblers, 
White-shouldered Tumblers, Helmeted Tumblers, Feather-footed 
Tumblers, Rollers, and House Tumblers, might be exhibited. 
A class for Common or Flying Tumblers is open to the same 
objections as those for Horsemen and Dragons. The points of 
the breed are the same. Their colour and markings are all given 
in the above classes for Short-faced Tumblers; and, as their high 
flying and tumbling cannot be judged in the show pen, it is im¬ 
possible to draw the line where the Common Tumbler ends and 
the Short-faced begins. 
III. The English Powteh, or Jack of Trumps. —The five 
properties arc (I consider if he has no crop he is not worth the 
name, so I put it) :—1st, crop; 2nd, length: 3rd, slenderness ; 
4th, carriage ; 5th, feather. Varieties, five classes, as follows :— 
1st, Blue Pieds ; 2nd, Black Pied ; 3rd, Red Pied ; 4th, Yellow 
Pied ; 5tli, AA T hite, or any other variety. 
I am not sure if it would not be better, in first-rate Pigeon 
Shows, to let the White enjoy the 5th class to themselves, and 
appoint a 6th for any other variety, as Mealy, quite Black or 
Blue, Dutch, German, or French, Powters or Croppers ; for it is 
not good to be too exclusive ; and though these foreign Croppers 
are not exactly according to the English fancy, yet they show a 
marked contrast, which is very striking in many respects. 
IV. The Runts, or Fog, Gog, and Magog. — The only 
property on which the Runts seem united, is size: like the Sussex 
and Surrey fowls, they are esteemed for bulk. Perhaps, there¬ 
fore, we may say, the first point is weight. The five classes I 
propose for the varieties are :—1st, Leghorn ; 2nd, Spanish; 
3rd, Romans ; 4th, Seandaroons ; 5tli, Feather-footed. 
It is absolutely necessary that separate classes should be given 
to these different breeds, as the present plan induces mongrelism. 
But as each of these breeds have their peculiar properties, I refer 
the breeders to the descriptions previously given.—B. P. Brent. 
OUR LETTER] BOX. 
Spanish Fowls at the Crystal Palace (T. Nelson). —We have con¬ 
sulted our reporter on the subject of your letter. He says :—“ I have con¬ 
stantly made public, that if a pen worthy of especial notice is passed over, 
it is by accident. Every prize pen does not call for separate mention. I 
do not say Mr. Nelson’s are in this predicament—his were deserving- pens 
But if a report is to be merely a repetition of the prize list, it will only be. 
necessary to reprint that. Neither of the pens of hens was named, nor 
were all the others. Yet there is no other complaint of the omission. A 
report, is neither an echo of the prize list, nor an advertisement. It is a 
familiar resume, conveying an idea of the Show to those who were absent, 
and treating of the salient points. Having thus answered the complaint, 
I will add, the omission was accidental, but that it is a thing that will 
constantly occur.” 
Trimming Spanish Fowls [An Amateur, but not an Exhibitor). —We 
have nothing to do with the consistency of Judges, and we consider their 
task sufficiently arduous, without throwing difficulties in their way. There 
were two Judges at each place you name. Their decisions arc, we believe, 
generally approved. From inquiry, we are able to state positively, neither 
the cock in the single class, nor in the chicken prize pen, were trimmed, 
or in any way altered from their natural state. Many birds were trimmed, 
both at Liverpool and the Crystal Palace, and they were very properly 
disqualified. 
Pigeons [E. O. jlf.).—Your Horseman cock sitting upon the Fantail’s 
eggs, probably arises from his having paired with a hen Fantail.—B. P. B. 
Influence of Male Bird (IF. N .).—You must not depend upon the 
eggs, though the hen was in moult, and has not laid yet: the male bird 
objected to her, having been with her a few days previously. 
Rabbits (F. Goshawk). —No good work concerning them has yet been 
published. 
Hen with Affection of the Head. —“Ihave a Game hen, which has 
been taken with an affection of the head. She is always looking in a kind 
of queer, giddy way, and turns her neck round as if she was always trying 
to see something above or behind her. Sometimes she falls backwards. 
Can you toll me what is the matter with her, and whether it can he cured, 
and how I must treat her? She cats voraciously, but her food does not 
seem to do her any good. I also wish to know whether you can tell me 
something about the relative hardiness of Gold and Silver Pheasants. I 
have kept the former. Is there any difference in the feeding and manage¬ 
ment of the latter, and are they hardy ? Might I keep them in pairs, or 
must there be one cock and several hens ? Can you recommend me the 
best place for getting them ? ” —North Lincoln. 
[The hen can only be treated by purgatives, castor oil {a table-spoonful 
every other day), and bleeding from the comb. Feed on oatmeal, slaked 
with cold water. It is a bad case, hut she may recover. The Silver 
Pheasants are, if anything, hardier than the Golden. Their treatment is 
the same. They may be kept in pairs, and do better than when several 
hens are kept with one cock. Apply to Mr. Baily, 113, Mount Street, 
London, AY.] 
