Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1888 — Japanese Birds. [ARTICLE]

Japanese Birds.

The neighboring menagerie contained a tiger, various sorts of deer and monkeys, and a pool full of utters; hut the greatest natural curiosity (which did not look at all natural) was to be found in the aviary, where, among cages filled with peacocks, emus, pheasants, and lyre birds, was an inclosure containing three cocks, two white and one black and gold. Their bodies were not larger than ordinary English barn-door chanticleers, but their tails were wonderful, rising from the body in a thick mass, the feathers drooping gracefully in a sweep fully niue feet in length. In the museum we saw stuffed specimens with tails twelve feet long. I scarcely expect this statement to be believed, but I assure the reader that it is strictly true. Exchange.