MuRiE. — 0)1 Hijbridisiii of Fowl and Woodhcn. ool 



If we take Tegetmeier," a reliable authority on fowls, or 

 Darwin'sf synopsis of breeds and sub-breeds, in his chapte}- 

 on fowls, it is easily seen that the great majority of the breeds 

 must be discarded as completely at variance with the bird 

 under consideration. A few breeds only are worthy of notice. 

 Though the Malay has sixteen retrices, and small downward 

 sloping tail, yet in all other characters it widely diverges. The 

 Cochin, in its soft downy plumage, short sixteen-feathered tail, 

 dumpy spurs, medially-furrowed and depressed frontal bone, 

 high-outlined occipital foramen, bony bridge on the sixth 

 cervical vertebra, feathered leg (though superabundant), long 

 middle-toe, and grazing propensity, much better agrees with 

 the condition of things in the supposititious hybrid, more pai- 

 ticularly one variety of Cochins presently to be mentioned. 

 The pure Dorking, again, in its wide intei-orbital region, and 

 partially in the outline of its furcular termination (hypocleidium) , 

 harmonizes; but, on the other hand, its additional-toe cha- 

 racter and other features do not coincide. Further, the breed 

 of so-called Silk Fowls, in the very characteristic nature of their 

 plumage and other attributes, have much in their favour, but 

 I did not observe in the alleged hybrid that distinguishing 

 peculiarity of the Silk Fowl — namely, the black skin and black 

 periosteum of the bones. Eeferring to the Silky Cochins, 

 Tegetmeier's words are so explanatory and appropriate to the 

 present case that T quote accordingly : — 



"The singular variety known as Silky Cochins, or some- 

 times as Emu Fowls, is simply an accidental variation of 

 plumage which occasionally occurs, and which may be per- 

 petuated by careful breeding. The cause of the coarse fluffy 

 appearance of these remarkable fowls is to be discovered hi 

 the fact that the barbs of the feathers, instead of being held 

 together by a series of hooked barbules (so as to constitute a 

 plane surface, as occurs in all ordinar}- feathers), are perfectl>- 

 distinct; and this occasions the loose, fibrous, silky appearance 

 from which the fowl obtains its name. Silk Cochins are 

 irsually inferior in size to the ordinary varieties."]; 



In short, one thing with another, it appears to me that 

 this occasional production of aberrant, curt-tailed, hairy- 

 plumaged chickens among the New Zealand poultry points to 

 a strain of Cochin or Silky Fowl blood which now and again 

 crops up. Where the bird has from circumstances run wild 

 there is a tendency to feral habit and pronounced traits of 

 wild breed, those induced by domestication — as size, &c. — 

 diminishing in a coiTCsponding ratio. 



* "The Poultry Book;" by W. B. Tegefcmeier ; Lond., 1867. And 

 " Encycl. Brit.," ed. 9, vol. xix., p. 644, art. " Poultry." 



t " Animals and Plants under Domestication," i., p. 226. 

 : " The Poultry Book," by W. B. Tegetmeier, p, 46. 



