to increase size and procure the heavy colour which some of the judges affect." For strength of constitution, both as chickens and fowls, they surpass all other breeds. Brahmas like an extensive range, but bear confinement as well as any fowls, and keep cleaner in dirty or smoky places than any that have white feathers. They are capital foragers where they have their liberty, are smaller eaters and less expensive to keep than Cochins, and most prolific in eggs. They lay regularly on an average five fine large eggs a week all the year round, even when snow is on the ground, except when moulting or tending their brood. Mr. Boyle, of Bray, Ireland, the most eminent breeder of Dark Brahmas in Great Britain, says he has "repeatedly known pullets begin to lay in autumn, and _never stop_--let it be hail, rain, snow, or storm--for a single day till next spring." They usually lay from thirty to forty eggs before they seek to sit. The hens do not sit so often as Cochins, and a week's change of place will generally banish the desire. They put on flesh well, with plenty of breast-meat, and are more juicy and better shaped for the table than most Cochins; though, after they are six months old, the flesh is much inferior to that of the Dorking. A cross with a Dorking or Creve-Coeur cock produces the finest possible table fowl, carrying almost incredible quantities of meat of excellent quality. The chickens are hardy and easy to rear. They vary in colour when first hatched, being all shades of brown, yellow, and grey, and are often streaked on the back and spotted about the head; but this variety gives place, as the feathers come, to the mixture of black, white, and grey, which forms the distinguishing colour of the Brahma. Mr. Baily has "hatched them in snow, and reared them all out of doors without any other shelter than a piece of mat or carpet thrown over the coop at night." They reach their full size at an early age, and the pullets are in their prime at eight months. Miss Watts noticed that Brahmas "are more clever in the treatment of themselves when they are ill than other fowls; when they get out of order, they will generally fast until eating is no longer injurious," which peculiarity is corroborated by the experienced "Henwife." The feathers of the Brahma-Pootra are said to be nearly equal to goose feathers.