FANCIERS’ JOURNAL 

AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 5 

(For Fanciers’ Journal.) 
SETTER DOG “GROUSE.” 
(ILLUSTRATED. ) 
Our illustration represents the well-known setter dog 
‘‘Grouse,’’ owned by Messrs. Schreiber & Son, photogra- 
phers, of this city. The dog and position were thought to 
be so good, that the ‘‘Sportsman’s Club”’ of this city adopted 
it as a seal for their Society. 
‘Grouse’? was born June, 1868. Color, orange and white. 
‘When in good condition, his hair is from 5 to 7 inches long, 
of very fine silky texture. He stands 244 inches high, and 
is 41 inches from the end of nose to the root of tail; 31 
inches around the chest; length of head 102 inches; cir- 
cumference of head 18inches. His sire and dam were raised 
in New Jersey from imported parents. He has a fine dis- 
position, and is thoroughly broken on all the game birds of 
this section of country ; will stand, back, and retrieve Eng- 
lish snipe, woodcock, quail, and partridges. As an instance 
of his good qualities, when three years old, during a sport- 
ing trip in Virginia, he pointed within half an hour on 
woodcock, quail, and English snipe. 

+21 

(For Fanciers’ Journal.) 
WHAT FOWLS PAY THE BEST. 
I sHALL endeavor to give through the Fanciers’ Journal 
and Poultry Exchange my views and experience in regard 
to what fowls pay the best, how to make them pay, &c., &c. 
My first investment in poultry outside of the common 
dung-hill breed, was made in the spring of 1865, by pur- 
chasing six or seven spotted fowls, called by their former 
owner Silver Pheasants, at one dollar per head. A few 
weeks later I called at the residence of Mr. Benjamin 
Haines, in Elizabeth, N. J., and added one trio of silver- 
spangled Hamburgs, and one trio of White Leghorn, to my 
‘‘choice’’ collection. So much for a start in the poultry 
business, My object this week is to show, to the best of my 
ability, and by my own experience, the foolish idea of ama- 
teurs in not selecting the best stock, and seeing what they 
get before paying for it. Of course there are numerous in- 
stances where parties have been known to get good stock by 
answering some of the many advertisements that crowd the 
agricultural and stock papers of the present day, but I truly 
believe that the poultry fancy has suffered more, in this 
country, by the rascality of unprincipled parties, than by 
any other way. However, we will return to our subject. 
I had the hen fever badly; Burnham was nowhere. Never 
shall I forget with what anxiety I watched and waited for 
the necessary twenty-one days to elapse, when the careful 
old dung-hill (selected expressly for the occasion), should 
present me with my first clutch of Hamburgs; but as 
everything must have an ending, soit was in my case. But 
oh, horror! what was my dismay when going into the hen- 
nery one morning, to find my much-looked-for brood of 
Hamburgs almost black! What could have been the 
cause? I had kept them separate, the Hamburgs in one 
coop and the Leghorns in another; so where did the mon- 
grels come from? and they were mongrels of the first 
water. But I was young, and trouble did not sit long upon 
me. The Leghorns had to report yet. Perhaps I may have 
better luck in that quarter; they certainly cannot come 
black ; neither did they; but out of fifteen eggs the hen 
hatched twelve chicks, five white and seven Dominique, So 


much for my first year’s experience in the poultry business. 
In the next number I shall give my experience with the 
different breeds in regard to laying qualities, profits, &. 
TuHos. S. ARMSTRONG. 
TRENTON, N. J. 

MARKETING POULTRY. 
ALL poultry intended for market should be well fattened, 
especially that sent for the holidays. The best manner of kill- 
ing fowls is by bleeding in the neck ; never wring the neck. 
Poultry intended for market should be dry picked, and if the 
feathers are plucked before the bodies are cold, this can be 
easily done. If poultry is scalded in the old-fashioned way it 
lessens the value full one-third. After the fowl is dry picked 
plunge it in a kettle of very hot water, holding it there only 
long enough to cause the bird to plump, then hang it up, 
turkeys and chickens by the foot, and ducks and geese by 
the head, until thoroughly cooled. This scalding makes the 
fat look bright and clear, and the fowl appear nice and 
plump. In packing, use clean packages, lining the sides 
and ends with paper and cover over, between the layers, 
with clean rye straw. Pack as closely as possible, so there 
will be no chance for the poultry to move about and be- 
come bruised. Good poultry will always sell for a full price, 
while common and inferior grades invariably sell low, and 
in most cases at a loss to shippers.—Rural Home. 


PECULIARITIES OF BIRDS. 
RECENT adepts in natural history state some curious facts 
about birds. It is said that among other ‘‘ mental qualities”’ 
which our winged friends possess, they have a wonderful 
power of ‘calculating distances.’” As new weapons of de- 
struction are invented, many species of birds narrowly ob- 
serve their range, and keep out of the dangerous distance, 
without troubling themselves to fly farther than necessary. 
Some birds, an English authority maintains, have studied 
‘trifle practice,’’ and give themselves a longer distance from 
a rifle barrel than is necessary when a ‘‘smooth bore,’’ is 
pointed at them. This may be true, for the wonderful 
sagacity which animals possess may be admitted within 
bounds. 
Domestic poultry, losing much, do not still lose all their 
aptness, though “ Tiff,’ in the story, pronounces them 
‘“‘ shallow things.’”? They will avoid a carriage-wheel, at 
the last moment, seldom moving more than three or four 
inches out of the way. But their aptness at ‘calcula- 
tion,’ when a steam-engine is the ‘‘ motor,”’ is not credita- 
ble. Railroad trains through rural districts immolate large 
numbers of chickens. The birds can ‘time’? a horse, but 
not a steam-engine. 
Birds have a fine eye, it is noted, for beauty and adorn- 
ment—domestic fowls always excepted—and some varieties 
are great imitators. Their character is summed by the 
writer already referred to as follows: ‘‘It may be safely 
said that birds seem to have more capacity for perceiving 
beauty, much more gift for social enjoyment, a finer knowl- 
edge of distance and direction, and more power of vocal 
imitation, than any other order of animals of which we know 
anything. On the other hand, they have less sense of power 
and sympathy than the dog, and therefore much less sense 
of responsibility to their superiors, whom they often love 
