FANCIERS’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 259 

imported from China thirty years ago by Rev. Mr. Marsh, 
of Dedham, and they were good ones too. I alluded to this 
fine stock in alate paper sent you. There were exhibited 
by Isaac N. French, of Holbrook, Mass., at the last Boston 
Show, some splendid specimens of this variety—pullets at 
ten months old drawing ten pounds, and perfect in penciled 
plumage. They are hard to beat, and are the genuine 
China stock. Mr. French has bred them a great many 
years in their purity, and gets a round price for his best 
birds even at this late day. For their class, I consider this 
strain of blood the very best we have ever had in this coun- 
try, and I have bred and exported to England hundreds of 
this family, first and last. But these fowls came from 
Shanghai also. They are very heavily feathered upon the 
legs, and were known in the old days as ‘‘ Marsh Shang- 
hais,”’ to distinguish them from the imported ‘ Forbes 
Shanghais,’’ the ‘Cushing Shanghais,”’ the ‘* Burnham 
Shanghais,’’ &. 
There is now no question existing as to the leading fact 
that the Queen’s Cochins and the Cochins of the present 
time all originated in China. But the first mentioned were 
long-tailed, long-bodied, long-legged, smooth-limbed birds. 
The ‘‘Cochins”’ of to-day must be heavily feathered to the 
tips of their toes, or they are disqualified in the exhibition- 
room in competition for fowl-show premiums—as every one 
is now aware. 


PouttRy DepaRTMenT: 
(For Fanciers’ Journal.) 
“YOU AND YOUR NEIGHBOR.” 
I must add a little testimony to A. N. R.’s article, under 
the above heading, in No. 14. Last spring one of my 
neighbors borrowed some Duckwing Games of me, procur- 
ed some Bluck Reds of another neighbor, then advertised 
as follows: ‘*My Duckwing and Black Reds I sell eggs 
from, are imported, and their progeny are from a noted 
breeder in England, who has made these two varieties a 
specialty for over twenty years; and I have reason to 
- believe they are the best of the kind ever imported into this 
country.’’ He did not have an imported bird in his yard; 
all his Duckwings were bred from my stock. This season 
he advertises largely, and claims to sell eggs from ‘* Duck- 
wing Games (imported strain).’’ He represents to his cus- 
tomers that his fowls are the very best, and that his neighbors 
sell inferior stock and eggs, from common fowls and mon- 
grels. I hope the time will come, when we will have a 
detective department in our journals, and that such hum- 
bugs will be ventilated. J. Y. BICKELL. 
WESTMORELAND, N, Y. 




BLP NN 
THE CANADA GOOSE. 
A WRITER in the New England Farmer thus describes 
the Canada or wild goose: 
Among the birds which migrate far from northern lati- 
tudes during the winter months, there is no species viewed 
with more general interest than the Canada goose, especially 
in New England, and yet in the majority of cases the ex- 
tent of the knowledge of these birds is confined to their 
harsh note of ‘awhonk honk,” and their regular and sys- 
tematic manner of flight. The plumage of this goose is 
very handsomely marked; the head a glossy black, as is 
also the neck, except a band of white across the throat; the 
upper part of the body is grayish brown, the wing coverts 
pale gray edged with brown, the lower parts of the body 
shading into grayish white, the abdomen pure white and 
the tail black. 
The movements of the Canada goose upon the land are 
rather awkward, but upon the water they are extremely 
graceful, resembling the gray swan. The native land of 
this magnificent bird is far to the north, great numbers of 
them being found in Labrador and the adjacent islands ; 
here they remain during the short summer of those latitudes, 
breeding quite abundantly. Their nests are usually formed 
upon the ground, of small sticks and plants and coarse 
grass; the eggs are of a dull greenish tint, rather elliptical 
in form, and somewhat larger than a medium hen’s egg ; 
the period of incubation is four weeks. The male bird dur- 
ing this time never leaves the side of the female, except to 
procure food, and takes her place at intervals. The young 
brood follow their parents to the water at a very early age, 
and are watched over and taught by both until they are 
able to care for themselves, and the whole family remain 
together until the following spring. 
Early in September the various families begin to gather 
for a general departure for a more genial climate, and at 
the first prospect of a snow storm, the note of departure is 
sounded, and after an hour or two spent in teaching the 
young their order of march they start, usually with an ex- 
tended front, then in asingle line, but gradually assume 
the angular form in which we most commonly see them ; 
the elder males take the front, the females follow, and the 
young according to their strength, the weakest having the 
rear. They usually continue their flight two or three days 
before they are sufficiently fatigued and hungry to care to 
take much rest, but they occasionally stop for a night or 
day in the neighborhood of some lake or arm of the sea to 
satisfy the cravings of hunger and renew their strength. 
Great numbers of them proceed as far south as Texas and 
Florida, although some remain in the Middle States, during 
winter, but they breed in these warm countries very spar- 
