THE COCKER; Containing every Information to the Breeders and Amateurs of that noble Bird, THE GAME COCK: to which is added, a variety of other useful Information for the Instruction of those who are attendants on the Cock Pit.-By W. SKETCHLEY, Gent.-Burtonon-Trent, printed. (Concluded from page 28.) "IT is doubtless an absurd opinion to think any breed incestuous that springs from the brute creation, and of course we have bred from father and daughter, mother and son, or from brother and sister, which is termed full blood. I have also known the brood excellent where the broodcock and hens are got by the same cock, but out of a different hen; though I most approve of the former, the hen's strain being generally allowed to be superior and more certain than the cock's. If your brood places are at a distance from your house or place where you mean your old game hens to sit, great care should be taken that your eggs in being conveyed away, are not cracked or shaked, but compact and firm for carriage. As eggs are best marked when gathered, always on these occasions provide yourself with pen and red ink, and mark each egg with some character known to yourself, with the day of the month: for, as you may not always have broody hens ready, this method will point out to you to set or destroy them according to the time they may have been on hand. I have generally kept mine in sweet bran: their own weight imbeds them and prevents their contact: cause them to be turned every two VOL. XLVI.-No. 272. days-for by lying too long in one position, the yolks will frequently decay, and destroy the prolific power. It frequently happens that some eggs are smaller than others, and ill-formed-they therefore should be rejected; for all misshaped eggs will produce defective birds. From intense observation I have generally found that the round egg produced the female, and those of the oblong the male bird. If too many eggs are set under the hen so as to be exposed to the chilling cold or too intense heat, either extreme impairs the vital power, and the embryo will prove deficient. Nature prompts these creatures to turn their eggs during incubation; equally necessary is its being done previous to their being set. "A few years will provide you with a sufficient number of old game hens to sit, and on no account be prevailed on to use any other. Old hens are always more steady in sitting than pullets, are more industrious and attached to their brood, and not half so prone to quit their brood at too early a period. Their places for sitting should be private, free from annoyance, and ought to be as little ruffled as possible, save more immediately to see that they are not laid to, as well as to observe that she has not deserted them :-to give them every chance of secure retirement, they should be little liable to intrusion. It has been recommended to supply them with food, &c. near them. Whatever is most natural I should think most conducive to their health, and therefore have suffered them to come off to enjoy good water with feed at a certain place, that they may not be too long ahsent from their eggs, with any H other other enjoyment they are in search after. "It is a good and regular method to chalk over the place where they sit the day they should hatch, and of course draw your attention to see that the eggs are perfectly right as to number, mark, &c. and to remove the chipped envelope, as well as the chickens which are hatched, until the whole are at hand. You will then return them to the hen in such place as you may have for the purpose (boarded floors are best) where they remain as to time according to the clemency of the season, and the strength of the chickens. Let their feed be to discriminate their sorts as well as to enter them in the manner set forth in the book for the purpose, previous to your leaving the room. If you have plenty of range in department, a great many chickens may be kept until such time as the hens may leave them. A distribution of your cockerils claims your serious attention, so much so that one half of your early birds may be preserved until such time as they are to occupy their allotted walks. The mode I have pursued to accomplish this desired end is, to select as many early cockerils, as nearly of an age as they present themselves, and turn them down in some secure retreat, under the "Macerated eggs that have been guidance and authority of a two boiled hard; "Crumbs of white bread; "Lettuce leaves, well mixed with an addition of meadow ants; "The maggots from grains, kept for the purpose; Shelled steeped oats; "Small wheat; "Curds, with new milk; "Bread toasted, steeped in chamber-lie, as they are fond of variety. "Let their food be given frequently, in small quantities, and accommodate them with small heaps of dry earth or fine sand in the room. "You will observe never to carry them abroad until the dew is entirely off the grass, every kind of humidity being hurtful; and you will return them before sun →set. "As more hatches than one may be in the same place, never delay marking them when brought into the room with some one of the marks usually put upon them (perhaps those upon the nostril and veye are the most injurious) in order year-old cock, with one hen. Here they may remain without a probability of their becoming rebellious or self-contentious until Novemher, when it may be right to do away the old cock and his mate, and suffer them to enjoy an uncontrouled retirement until a proper disposal offers. No other mode that I could possibly devise has offered me so much security as this, and what I should strongly recommend. Others you may dispose of in such farm-yards, where interest is most predominant, and there remain a proper season until their removal. Frequent visits are in this department necessary to watch their growth and well-doing and at a proper time to make choice of those whose shape and perfection promise to reward your future care. Those that are not the objects of your choice, see them properly disposed of, in order to prevent an improper use. "Previous to their going to master-walks have them up for twelve or fourteen days, that you may cut their comb and wattles: and and handle them with gentleness and every encouraging demeanour. Let them go proudly out of hand, and touch them lightly behind to bring them to the front of the pen: this will feed their pride, inure them to the crow of others, and they come to with more alacrity and pleasantness to be fed, and with more facility, than cocks un accustomed thereto; and from this necessary attention few or any are liable to shy. "Let your pens be well aired, the fastnesses properly secured, the perches arranged, the straw sweet and not damp, and every morning shook from their filth. Before you send them out number your pens from number one to the number you have up, with the person's name they are to go to; and hav. ing your book ready enter them as directed, being particular as to their marks and colours, with any other natural mark they may have, and ticket your bags according to the pens, when sent. A regu larity of this kind will save much trouble. "Your utmost care and attention must be exerted to procure good walks, for half-bred fowls in a well furnished walk will beat the best game when starved or pined; and hand-strewed walks generally bring on an inactive sloth. To send fine stags that have enjoyed every indulgence to bad walks, is one of the most flagrant errors a breeder can commit, and it is undoing all you have done before. Cocks, from so sudden a deviation, experience a change in their system, and it checks their growthfrequently a gradual decline ensues. Therefore the procuring good walks is absolutely necessary and conducive to the well-doing and constitution of your cocks. All are town-walks, except here and there a few, are not worth having, and there are few in villages where towns are near to each other, but may be ranked in the same class. The best are those whose situations are distant, and where plenty of corn and water abound. Grass walks with corn are to be preferred to clay-bound fields, the latter defacing their glossy plumes. Where a great number of walks are wanted, the practice of running stags with cocks is unavoidable, and with some to a late period; even if he fights a long main early in the spring he may fall short of the whole of his stags being got out, and of course many sacrificed. If you have much yardroom, or two yards belonging to the same dwelling, let the younger brood be accustomed to occupy the one, with a proper roost distinct from the other, seldom inter. fering with the older branch. Gentlemen who command any number of walks, have infinitely the advantage of those whose walks are few and limited: the advantages over the latter are pre-eminently great, for many are so beautifully situated that even the crow or the sight of a cock seldom comes across them; they are neither fretted nor teazed, which ever causes them to lose much of their flesh, and de stroys that martial fire and spirit, when so habituated, added to the annoyance of stags that when exhibited upon the Pit, bis raging pride is so far abated it frequently makes him tardy and slow to action. "Those who fight for considerable suns cannot be too scrutinizing in the choice of their stags, when they are to be sent out to clear walks, to see that they are in all respects free from ocular H 2 im "To mention a few of these imperfections may be necessary, although they are generally well known; such as are "Flat sided, and then generally deep keeled, Short legged, "Thin thighs, "Crooked or indented breast, "Duck and short footed, and may be easily seen when up for the purpose of cutting and handling. "Cocks that are well formed and lofty have an amazing advantage over the disproportioned; the latter carrying with them much useless weight. High bearing fowls will always have the odds in their favour over low setting cocks. Cocks when they are justly formed, rise in their fight with more agility and force, are better heelers than those that carry their make equal to the extreme and your dry heeled cocks are generally of the latter description, the weight being too far from the centre of action, and once overpowered they are always under a cock, that is not alike defective;-their legs are thrown out of the line of the body, and of course are never close hitters. "Cocks that do not bear couelike shapes, are for the most part wide and straddling in their walk, and as they walk they fly-whereas in the cone-like shape, the legs are more inverted and narrow, and are more terrible in their spur." ON THE CRAFT OF FOXES IN From Olaus Magnus, Archbishop of Upsal. WHEN the fox is pressed with hunger, cold, and snow, be will come near houses and bark like a dog, which brings the domestic animals about him, some of whom he makes his prey. Sometimes he will feign himself dead, lying on his back, drawing in his breath, and lolling out his tongue. Sometimes when hungry, he will roll himself in red earth, and making himself appear as if killed and bloody, birds coming down to feed on bis carcass, are snapped up unawares. To avoid the prickles of the hedge hog, he will throw him on his back. Sometimes meet. ing a multitude of wasps, he hides his body all but his tail, and when they are entangled in it, he will come out and rub them against a stone or a tree till they are quite dead. Much in the same manner he catches crabs and small fish. How he gets rid of his fleas is well known. Sometimes he will play with a bare; hut this animal often escapes him by its quickness. Sometimes the fox has been known to escape as a dog, by barking; but he most certainly escapes his enemies when he hangs himself by a bough, and makes the dogs lose scent. He is also wont to deceive the hunter when he runs amongst a herd of goats, or sometimes by leaping upon a goat, which runs with him on its back up inaccessible heights. If fastened after being taken, he will sometimes bite off his own foot and get away. But if no other way remains, he will, when taken out of the snare, feign himself dead. I once saw on the rocks of Norway a fox with a huge tail, who brought many crabs COMPARATIVE GOODNESS OF south west, we had not proceeded ANCIENT HORSES. above a mile before we heard on our left, a noise very much like To the Editor of the Sporting Ma- the barking of a large mastiff, but IN SIR, gazine. the Sporting Magazine for March, 1815, page 281, appears a letter signed JOHN LAWRENCE, containing the following observa tion: "Let the reader be reminded in the two following illustrious examples, which our universe, nei. ther ancient nor modern, can parallel." It is rather extraordinary, that in the researches after the origin of our present illustrious race of horses, the Stradling or Lister Turk should be omitted, as he was sire of Snake and Coneyskins, and the Hobby Mare, dam of the famous Brocklesby Betty. t Snake was sire of the Warlock Galloway, the dam of Squirt, and grandam of Regulus. Eclipse had four crosses of the Lister Turk. His sire Marsk, by Squirt,* great grandam by Coney skins,* a son of the Lister Turk. Eclipse's dam Spilletta, by Regulus, her dam by Smith's son of Suake;* which pedigree must rank the Lister Turk equal in point of value to Darley's Arabian or the ending in a hiss like the fuf* of a cat. I thought it must he some large monkey, and was observing to Mr. Anderson "what a bouncing fellow that must be," when we heard another bark nearer to us, and presently a third still nearer, accompanied with a growl. I now suspected that some wild animal meant to attack us, but could not conjecture of what species it was likely to be. We had not proceeded a hundred yards farther, when coming to an opening in the bushes, I was not a little surprised to see three lions coming towards us. They were not so red as the lion I formerly saw in Bambarra, but of a dusky colour, like the colour of an ass. They were very large, and came bounding over the long grass, not one after another, but abreast. I was afraid if I let them come too near us, and my piece should miss fire, that we should all be devoured by them. I therefore let go the bridle and walked forward to meet them. As soon as they were within a long shot of me, I fired at the centre one. I do not think I hit him, but they all stopped, looked at each other, and then bounded * Thus in Mr. Park's MS. away |