676 
FANCIERS’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 
ANTWERP PIGEON. 
Mr. Jos. M. Wade. 
Sir: Your Fanciers' Journal of July 23, as a specimen, 
has been received. I find it very good and interesting, and 
like it very well. I inclose $2.50 for one years’ subscrip- 
tion. 
You say that you have been informed that I am an ardent 
fancier of your favorite, the Antwerp Pigeon. I am an 
Antwerper by birth, having lived in Antwerp till the age of 
29, when I came to this country. I was a fancier in Antwerp 
for at least 15 years, and if there is a city in the world where 
there are any really ardent pigeon fanciers, it is in the city of 
Antwerp that they are to be found. Fanciers are really crazy 
with their pigeons there ; from 5,000 to 10,000 birds are sent 
off in different directions very often in one day. I have written 
some articles on Pigeon-flying in Belgium for the “ Pet Stock, 
Pigeon and Poultry Bulletin ” of this city, and, as I suppose 
that you exchange with said paper, you will see in the num- 
bers of August and September, to what extent the flying of 
pigeons is carried on there. 
My articles have occasioned a challenge of a Mr. John 
L. Strine, of Baltimore. The challenge is in this month’s 
“ Bulletin.” I received the paper to-day, and here is the 
answer I send to the editor of the “ Bulletin 
“Mr. Editor: In the ‘Bulletin’ of this month I see 
that Mr. John L. Strine, of Baltimore, Md., sends forth a 
challenge to any pigeon fancier to fly a match with his birds 
for any amount or distance. I would take up Mr. Strine’s 
challenge right away, but to make any match at all it should 
be for a distance of at least 300 miles, and the season being 
so far advanced it would only be destroying good birds to 
send them off to such a distance at this season of the year. 
If Mr. Strine will keep his challenge open till next June, I 
will fly him one or two birds for $100 at a distance from 
300 to 400 miles; the place where the birds should be let 
loose to be at an equal distance from blew York and Balti- 
more.” 
Trusting to receive an answer to the above, 
I remain, sir, yours truly, 
New Yokk, Oct. 22, 1874. JOHN Van OpSTAL. 
OG AND fvABBIT JEPARJMENT, 
(For Fanciers’ Journal.) 
“SILKY,” THE PET SKYE TERRIER. 
BY A DOG FANCIER. 
The subject of this sketch was a favorite specimen of the 
Skye Terrier tribe, well bred and of rare good stock, who 
was so fortunate as to be owned by a very nice little girl 
residing in an aristocratic city street, who prided herself 
upon possessing the “cunningest and loveliest ” sample of 
his kind ever seen. 
She called him “ Silky,” and a very appropriate name it 
was, for his long golden fleece was more like fine silk floss 
than like dog’s hair. He was thoroughbred, but small, short- 
legged, round-nosed, foxy-eared, keen-scented, and his two 
sparkling round eyes glistened like jet black beads, under 
the wavy head-curls that overhung bis handsome little face. 
Miss Laura’s father had made his pretty daughter a pres- 
ent of this dog upon her tenth birthday. She was his only 
child, and she came to love her pet very dearly; he was so 
cunning, so playful, so smart, and so easily taught to obey, 
and to acquire an aptness for pretty animal tricks. And 
“Silky could do any thing except talk,” so Miss Laura de- 
clared. 
He was a frisky little elf, forever on the move; racing up 
and down the stairs, through the halls and parlors, into the 
closets, up at the windows for a peep out of doors, in and 
out of the chairs, worrying Puss, teasing the maids and the 
cook, or romping with his rollicking young mistress from 
morning till night, always about some playful mischief, but 
ever as harmless in his pranks as a four weeks’ old kitten. 
Silky was death on rais. As for mice, he would snap 
them up like the fiercest cat, and would destroy a dozen 
while old Puss was catching one, until the house where he 
had free scope was as clear of vermin as the interior of an 
empty champagne bottle. 
All manner of pretty tricks and antics the youthful Miss 
Laura taught her pet to perform. She dressed him up doll- 
fashion, like an old woman, and the tiny mimic would per- 
sonate the grandma, waddling about the room in her old 
worn bonnet, with crutch in hand, and spectacles on nose, 
as if afflicted with ague or rheumatics, to the life ! 
His pretty mistress had a corporal’s gray coat and breeches, 
and a diminutive cocked hat, a la Napoleon , fitted to her 
favorite. She would attire him in this costume, stand him 
up on his hind feet, buckle a little wooden sword about his 
waist, and drill him to march off with the air militaire 
so successfully as to extort shouts of laughter from her young 
visitors, who often came to her father’s nice house to wit- 
ness the performances of this wonderfully sagacious dog. 
She harnessed him into a tiny pony-wagon, and placing 
Puss within it for driver, Silky would trot about the draw- 
ing-room or nursery in great glee, enjoying the sport as 
keenly as did charming little Laura and the rest. 
This dog would discharge a toy gun or pistol ; toss a bis- 
cuit in the air and catch it falling; go through the manual 
of arms ; march, halt, shoulder arms, carry arms, ready, aim, 
fire, at the word, like a soldier. And a hundred other little 
tricks he enacted, that were vastly amusing to Miss Laura 
and her juvenile friends. 
When her father brought home bon-bons, Silky (who was 
fond of confections) would dive into his master’s pockets 
and find the candies or sugar with cunning zest and satis- 
faction. At the table this pet occupied a high chair, and 
was taught to behave himself with rare good taste. He al- 
ways had a lively appetite, but he was patient, and waited 
to the last, of course, to be served. His young mistress 
would cut his meat up, which he would eat decorously, then 
wipe his mouth with his little napkin (as he saw others do), 
and retire when the family had finished their meals, to re- 
sume his roistering fun. 
Every morning the servant gave Silky his bath, combed 
out his long soft hair, and rendered him presentable and 
cleanly at breakfast. He enjoyed this refreshing operation, 
and was always as sweet as a posy, so Laura insisted ; for 
she was so fastidiously neat herself that she could endure 
nothing but nicety in everything around her. 
So Silky frollicked, and skipped, and marched, or “ played 
horse,” sought for imaginary rats and mice, teased the cat, 
bothered the servants, and amused his fair, gentle young 
mistress day in and day out for years. 
Once it happened, when Silky was four years old, that the 
street water-pipe running in front of their residence got out 
of order, and men came to repair it. They opened a large 
hole just below the front door, outside of the walk, stopped 
off the flow of water at the main, and went to work to fix 
the break. 
Silky had a habit of sitting at the front window to watch 
