FANCIERS’ 
JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 
247 

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If you will cross these with Tumblers, so as to get the 
coloring of the one and the tumbling of the other thoroughly 
settled in the one strain, you will have as handsome a flight 
as ever cleaved the air. A few seasons would be sufficient 
to accomplish the purpose, and it would be schooling your- 
self for higher experiments whieh you will wish to try, and 
for which you will need other knowledge than that found 
in books. 
The prices for Magpies range from $4 to $15, though I have 
- known $30 paid for a yellow cock.—Dr. W. P. Moraan. 


tems Huteresting and Amusing. 
p@s~ Engaged for the next set—Hens. 

pa@g~ Lap-dogs are not worn so much as formerly. 
y@s~ Seth Green is about to introduce the “ grayling”’ as 
a substitute for trout. At least he caught two of ’em in the 
Au Sable River, Mich., and says they’ll do. 
ges Jenkins told his son, who proposed to buy a cow in 
partnership, to be sure and buy the hinder half, as it eats 
nothing and gives all the milk. 
y@s An anxious anti-cruelty-to-animals-inquirey wishes 
to be informed if such wholesale drowning should be toler- 
ated, as putting the ‘‘ City of Peking”’ into the Delaware? 
pe@s A golden eagle was recently captured near Chetope, 
Kansas. The lucky captor was immediately offered ten dol- 
lars in bank notes for it, which he naturally refused, as he 
felt entitled to a premium on it. 
ga@s> A Spaniel named Curly, is the regular mail carrier 
between a settlement called Lake of Two Woods, Dakota, 
and the Minnesota line, twelve miles away. Letters and 
papers are placed in a sack, and tied about the dog’s neck; 
he is told to go, and never fails to reach his destination. 
Arriving, the mail is overhauled, the faithful servant is 
treated to a good dinner, and started on his return trip. 
ga@s> Ex-Marshal Bazaine, now fulfilling his sentence 
on the island of Sainte Marguerite, only goes out for two 
hours in the day, walking in the court belonging to his 
prison, under the surveillance of two keepers. His meals 
are furnished by the boatman of the island, who is at the 
same time sutler of the troops. His guard is composed of 
ninety soldiers of the line and five jailors. 
ya@s> ‘‘What’s hay?” asked a man of an honest granger 
in Burlington the other morning. The P. of H. told him 
$18.50, and followed him around the wagon, as he examined 
the hay very carefully. He expressed himself as perfectly 
satisfied with the price, and liked the looks of the hay. 
“Shall I put it into your barn?” asked the granger. 
‘¢ Well, no,” the man said, ‘‘ I have no barn; I only want a 
good, clean straw to chew.”” The hay merchant looked as 
if he would like to make him eat the whole load. 
pa@y A spunky hen and an unwise boy caused the total de- 
struction by fire of a complete set of farm buildings in 
Greenfield, N. H., on Saturday last. The boy undertook 
to ‘break up” a sitting hen, and, after all other plans which 
his inventive genius could suggest had failed, he deliberately 
set fire to the nest under her, which was in a barn or shed 
adjoining. But even this did not conquer or drive her, and 
the result was that the hen, barn, sheds, and house, which 
were attached, were entirely consumed. 

g@s- A schoolmaster delivered an address to his scholars, 
of which the following passage is an example: ‘‘ You boys 
ought to be kind to your little sisters. I once knew a bad 
boy who struck his little sister a blow over the eye. Although 
she did’nt fade and die in early summer time, when the June 
roses were blowing, with the sweet words of forgiveness on 
her pallid lips, she rose up and hit him over the head with a 
rolling pin, so that he couldn’t go to school for more than a 
month, on account of not being able to put his hat on.” 
yes We hear great stories of the mammoth fruits and 
vegetables of California, but think they will hide their 
diminished heads at a yam which grew near Tongatabo, 
Sandwich Islands. This vegetable monster was twelve years 
in growing, and when ripe weighed a ton. It grew ona 
spot called Tabud, from a chief of that name who was killed 
there. The captain of a whale ship obtained permission to 
take it on board of his ship, but being interdicted from 
breaking it up on the shore, was forced to leave it. 
p@s~ A rather strange affair was discovered in a stable 
in this place, a few days since. While hunting in its seclu- 
ded portions, two rat nests were discovered ; one with ten 
young rats, and the other with eight small rats and two kit- 
tens, with their eyes yet closed, and appearances indicated 
that they had been there for some days; but how they got 
there was the question—whether stolen and adopted by the 
head of the rat family, or whether forsaken and carried 
there by the mother cat; but to prevent any future trouble 
they were all destroyed. 
pe@s~ A very simple and yet useful instrument, called an 
egg-tester, has been gotten up by William J. Pyle, of West 
Goshen, a successful chicken raiser. It consists of a simple 
tin tube about six inches long, with one end the size and 
shape of an egg, tapering off to a smaller size at the other 
end; and by placing an egg in the large end, and looking 
through the tube with a bright light striking on the egg 
after it had been set upon about a week, you can readily 
discover whether the egg is a good one, and will hatch or 
not. The object of it is to examine eggs, being set upon at 
the end of a week, and to throw out all that are not good, 
and then remove the good ones to another sitting hen, and 
put fresh eggs in the place of those removed, thus prevent- 
ing the disappointment so often experienced at having so 
few chickens hatched. 
ya@s> Breeping HiGgH-CcOLORED AND Dark ORESTED 
CANARIES.—Select for your breeding stock, high-colored 
birds, not quite clear, but having some slight marks or ticks 
about them. An absolutely clear bird is perfection, and to 
breed from such, is to insure decline. From such as I have 
indicated, you may expect to get high-colored, clear birds. 
I give this as a general rule, without going into the theory 
of the matter. Your buff.cocks have what are known as 
gray crests. If you pair them with close-feathered hens 
having markings about them, you will get plenty of dark 
crests, and the more exact the marking of the hens, the 
greater chance there is of getting well marked and crested 
young ones. By pairing two buffs, you will get feather 
and compactness of crest, but at a sacrifice of color. All 
marked canaries are not higher in color than clear birds, 
but a depth of color is sometimes seen in a marked or ticked 
bird, which is not attainable in a clear one.—W. A. BLax- 
ston, in Journal of Horticulture. 
