518 
FANCIER. S’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 
prefer to confine their efforts to that branch of hen culture. 
For a number of years the Black Spanish breed was re- 
garded as the most desirable for egg producers, and with a 
great many the first thought of a large supply of eggs is still 
associated with an idea of the Black Spanish fowls. We 
concede to the Black Spanish great merits as layers, but in 
many other respects they are very undesirable, lacking vigor, 
being of objectionable color, and of ordinary quality for 
the table, compared with White Leghorns, a breed which 
we have taken occasion to recommend to our readers before, 
because we believe their merits as egg producers should be 
more generally known. Except in color and constitutional 
vigor, they are very similar, both laying large white eggs ; 
and the Leghorns being comparatively a new breed, seem 
to have come into notice just in time to supply the vacancy 
caused by the decline in Black Spanish, which are fast dis- 
appearing from the public gaze, except at poultry shows, 
where well-marked specimens can usually he found. 
The Leghorn is a sprightly, vigorous, handsome bird, of 
medium size, and those who want fowls for eggs alone, can- 
not do better than choose them ; their greatest faults being 
their extreme wildness and excitability, and their rather 
moderate size, which, however, most people will think more 
than counterbalanced by their sprightliness and vigor, their 
handsome appearance and abundance of large eggs which 
they produce . — National Live Stock Journal. 
PiqEO[J DepwtivieHt. 
PERCHES FOR PIGEON LOFTS. 
“ The sides of the loft, and the back wall over the match- 
ing-pens, are fitted up with perches, the construction of 
which is more clearly shown in the accompanying wood- 
cut. They are contrived on a plan described some years 
since by Mr. Noye, of Birmingham, slightly modified, 
and form the very best perches for all kinds of pigeons 
except Carriers and Pouters, the provision for which 
will be treated of in the proper place. They are formed by 
nailing on triangular brackets fastened to the wall, or to 
perpendicular uprights fixed to it, boards ten inches wide, 
planed smooth on the upper side, so as to secure them in a 
slanting position, as represented in the figure. On the top 
edges of these boards are nailed or screwed, in a horizontal 
position, slips of wood about four and a half inches long, by 
two and a half inches wide, with the corners rounded off to 
prevent injury while flying. These strips or perches must 
be not less than ten inches apart, so that one bird cannot 
possibly peck at another whilst perched ; but of course the 
total number of perches must depend upon the size of the 
loft and the number of birds it is meant to accommodate, 
and there should not be many more perches than there are 
meant to be birds. The boards catch all the droppings, and 
prevent any bird soiling the plumage of the one underneath 
it or on the floor, while the slant prevents them from being- 
perched or walked upon. It gives a little more trouble in 
construction if the perches are fixed in a separate length of 
wood, fixed rather above the slanting board ; but it saves a 
little trouble afterwards in cleaning, as a scraper can then be 
drawn with one sweep along each board. This was the plan 
adopted by Mr. Noye, who used round perches instead of 
flat ; but the pigeon not being a perching bird, and its feet 
only adapted for flat surfaces, the flat strips here described 
will be found preferable.” — Cassell’s Book of Pigeons. 
MOORE’S WORK ON PIGEONS. 
(Continued from page 503.) 
this article and the young squabs will nearly, if not quite, 
maintain your pigeons in food, provided you buy it at the 
best hand, and take care to keep them clean. 
Dr. Salmon, in his treatise before mentioned, gives us the 
following account of its usefulness in medicine. 
“ It is,” says he, “ of common use in cataplasms or plasters 
which rubify or draw strongly. Beaten, sifted, and mixed 
with watercress seeds, it is good against chronic diseases, 
such as the gout, megrim, vertigo, cephalseo, pains in the 
side, colic, apoplexies, lethargies, &c.” 
After this he gives us several recipes in which the dung of 
pigeons is a main ingredient, as : 
“1. R. Of the dung in powder ^iv, barley-meal or 
flower §iij, vinegar q. s. ; mix them to make a cataplasm 
against scrofulous and other like hard tumors. 
“2. R. Of the powder of the dung 3 ij , bears’ grease !|iv, 
pepper in powder gj, oil of cummin seed 5 SS. ; mix them 
for an oil against baldness. 
“ 8 . R. Of the dung in powder 5;iv, black soap §iij, oil 
of amber ^j, Mithridate 3 i j ; mix them for a cataplasm to 
ripen a plague sore. 
“ 4. R. Of the powder of the dung gj, powder of winter 
cherries ijss., Cromwell seed gij ; mix them and make a 
powder against the stone. Dose: from £ss. to gj.” 
This dung is used likewise in saltpetre beds, and is of very 
groat advantage in the nourishing and production of it : and 
till the days of Oliver Cromwell we had no saltpetre brought 
from abroad, but it was made at home from a mixture of 
pigeons’ dung, fowls’ dung, hogs’ dung, fat earth, and lime, 
which with another ingredient will form saltpetre, only it 
must be kept covered with a shed, to prevent or keep off the 
rain, that it may only mix with the nitrous quality of the 
air; and therefore when this commodity is very dear, as it 
