FANCIERS’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 












=f > es 
Pigeon Department. 
SILVER DRAGOONS’ BARS. 
As I have frequently the honor of acting asjudge at Pigeon 
shows, I have been requested by several fanciers to state my 
views on this subject. Mr. J. Percival, an old fancier, and 
likewise judge, having already done so, I shall enter into no 
argument with any one, for more than enough has been writ- 
ten and said on the subject. What I wish to put forth is, that 
it is by no means a new idea that Silver Dragoons should 
have black bars, for nearly forty years ago I had some, and 
they were then thought to be correct by a next-door neigh- 
bor, a Dragoon fancier then of more than thirty years’ stand- 
ing. I hope other gentlemen acting as judges will give their 
opinion, without any further discussion, as to which way they 
would award the prizes, both varieties being present—viz., 
Silver Dragoons with brown bars and Silver Dragoons with 
black. Without any hesitation I say I should give the prize 
to those with the black bars, all other points being equal.— 
Harrison WEIR, in Journal of Horticulture. 


—--. 
POLYGAMY IN PIGEONS. 
As bearing on the subject named by ‘ Onus Probandi” in 
the Journal of February 12th, I send you an account of the 
following facts. A common Ash cock of mine was mated 
with a common Blue Chequer hen, and they had a young 
one in the nest which died at about a fortnight old. I had, 
among others, an unmated Blue Chequer hen, which if pos- 
sessed among two or three dozen more of the same kind by 
a Lancashire dealer would be called ‘A Rock fra Linca- 
shire (Lincolnshire) fur shootin’,” but which, I suppose, is 
a Chequered Dovecote Pigeon. I had it from a farm in 
Herefordshire. The Ash cock is a very merry bird, and 
upon the death of his young one he was soon ready to go to 
nest again; and finding his own hen (which we will call the 
Blue Chequer) was not of the same mind, he turned his at- 
tentions to what we will call the ‘“‘Rock.’’? This seemed to 
rouse the jealousy of the Blue Chequer, and in a short time 
she laid him two eggs, which he helped to sit regularly, but 
when he was not sitting he employed his time in nesting or 
flying with the Rock. In due time the eggs laid by the Blue 
Chequer were hatched, and the young ones reared, the Ash 
helping to feed them. Both were Blue Chequers, but with 
a decided likeness in the head, beak, and general shape to 
the Ash cock. Before these young ones were able to fly 
about the Rock laid two eggs in another nest, built for her 
by the Ash cock, and he helped her regularly to sit, but 
when he was not sitting he employed his time in nesting and 
flying with the Blue Chequer (whose young ones could now 
feed themselves), and as a result she laid him two eggs about 
six days after the Rock. 
And now his work began; he helped both hens to sit, and 
I seldom saw him fly about outside. Yesterday, March 8th, 


both of the Rock’s eggs hatched; but until the young ones 
grow larger I shall not be able to prove that the Ash helps 
to feed them, though I have seen him sit over them. 
T have examined the eggs of the Blue Chequer, and found 
one ‘‘addled’’—no formation whatever having taken place, 
and I am now waiting for the other egg to hatch, when it 
will be interesting to observe whether the Ash cock helps to 
feed both nests, and also what likeness the progeny bear to 
him when full-grown. I say it will be interesting to observe 
what likeness both lots of young ones bear to him when full- 
grown, as I lately had a case in which a hen, that had been 
a long time unmated, laid two eggs (while yet unmated), 
one on the floor, the other on the shelf. I put them under 
a pair I had sitting, and two young ones were hatched and 
reared, which when full-grown bore an unmistakable like- 
ness to a certain cock I had, which had a mate and young 
ones of his own at the time. I only regret that it has not 
occurred among fancy breeds where parentage could have been 
traced without any doubt, inasmuch as the characteristics of 
distinct fancy breeds are so much more marked than those of 
the Homing Antwerp type, which is the sort I keep. 

CLUB ROW, THE FANCY AND ITS VOTARIES. 
[Many of our readers must be unaware that ‘‘ Club Row”’ 
isin Church Street, Bethnal Green, London, and a newspaper’ 
correspondent, speaking of its vicinity, says: ‘‘ Among its 
inhabitants are street venders of every kind of produce, 
travellers to fairs, tramps, dog fanciers, dog stealers, sharp- 
ers, shop lifters, and pickpockets. It abounds with the 
young Arabs of the streets. Sunday is a day much devoted 
to pet pigeons and singing-bird clubs, prizes being given, 
and a ready sale following each award.’”’—EDs. ] 
To those who spend the greater portion of their lives far 
from the din of the city, and whose homes, it may be, are 
nearer to the cover of the fox than to the busy mart and 
crowded streets, any one of the many specialties which Lon- 
don possesses is heard of with interest. Nor is it to such 
alone. London being the head and heart of our empire, and 
pre-eminently great in all its characteristics, all Englishmen 
take pride in its greatness, and never weary reading of its 
wonders, and I have therefore ventured to send you these 
few jottings. } 
‘‘Club Row on a Sunday morning’? had been described 
to me in such terms that determined me at the first favora- 
ble opportunity to pay it a visit. Previous information 
somewhat prepared me, but the scene itself surpassed all I 
had imagined. To begin with: In Club Row and adjacent 
streets there are about eighty ‘fanciers’’’ shops, possibly 
more than that number; and as a means of comparison, 
when we consider that Manchester and Salford combined 
can only muster about half a dozen all told, this in itself 
excited no little surprise. All the shops, or with scarcely 
an exception, in the locality named, seemed devoted to 
the same line of business. In some the atmosphere was 
simply unbearable, the proprietors evidently not believing 
‘‘cleanliness is next to godliness.’”? Happily there were ex- 
ceptions. As regards the birds, it would have been*possible 
to have obtained anything from a Tomtit toa Brahma cock, 
though I cannot say much in praise of the quality. The 
thoroughfares were thronged to a degree that made it diffi- 
cult to thread one’s way through the mass of venders and 
purchasers, for the trade was not restricted to the shops. 

