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TJic Country Gcnt'cmans Magcdnc 



THE DORKING AND SPANISH BREEDS. 



BESIDES being a clever artist, Harrison 

 Weir is also a first-rate judge of poultry, 

 which gives him a vast advantage over those 

 who look at theirsubjects merely with an artist's 

 eye. In the accompanying engraving he has 

 given us groups of what may justly be called the 

 two leading breeds of British poultry — the 

 Dorking and the Spanish. 



I. DARK GREY DORKING. 



Cock. — Neck-hackle and saddle — plentiful, 

 light straw colour, or silvery grey. Primary 

 quills — black or grizzled. Secondary quills 

 and upper wing coverts — light grey. Lower 

 coverts — a shade darker. Tail — ample, and 

 black. Breast — black, or speckled v/ith white. 

 Thighs — black, or spotted with white. Legs 

 and feet — pure white and featherless. Toes 

 — five, and distinct from one another, the 

 fifth well turned up, and one half longer than 

 the fourth. Comb — erect, single, regular. 

 Wattles — long and firm, and red like the 

 comb. Earlobe — red, but often, in otherwise 

 excellent fowls, red, broken with white. 



Hen. — Neck-heckle — grey, often very dark. 

 Back — ash, or grizzled grey. Primary quills 

 — black, or black and brown. Secondary 

 quills — dark brown, clouded. Upper and 

 lower wing coverts — grey, and quite distinct. 

 Breast— ruddy, but grey if matched with a 

 cock having a spotted breast. Tail— dark 

 mixed colour (grey, if defined at all). Thighs 

 — brown and grey mixed. Legs, feet, wattles, 

 and earlobe — the same as in the cock, spur 

 excepted, Avhich is nevertheless frequently 

 seen on Dorking hens' legs, but a very un- 

 welcome concomitant in hens of any breed. 

 Comb — falling over on either side. 



II. SILVER GREY DORKING. 



Large foul-feathered birds, erroneously 

 called Silver-grey Dorkings, are plentiful, but 

 useless as show birds. 



C,f7<r/C'.— Breast and tail— stainless black. 

 Hackle and saddle— stainless silver. 



^r;/.— Breast— bright robin, or clear red- 



dish-brown colour. Body — light-grey, the 

 shaft of each feather white, and very charac- 

 teristic in good specimens. Hackle — spotless 

 silver. Wing — perfectly free from red ; but 

 many birds, otherwise clean, shew this da- 

 maging impurity of feather. 



SPANISH. 



Cock. — (i.) A pure white face, which be- 

 gins from among the feathers close to the base 

 of the comb, and terminates in the lower ex- 

 tremity of the lobe or white loose bag of skin 

 which rises from the under part of the cheek, 

 and extends back round the ear and forwards 

 to the wattle on both sides of the face. The 

 white face should be stainless, smooth, even, 

 well-proportioned, and of wonderful extent. 

 (2.) The comb should be erect, absolutely 

 erect if possible, higher and longer than in 

 any other bird, of a bright red colour, regu- 

 larly serrated, and nicely balanced on the 

 head. (3.) The body and legs are, in pro- 

 portion to the weight, longer than in the other 

 large kinds ; and the neck should correspond. 

 (4.) The carriage is upright and majestic. 

 (5.) The plumage should be velvety black, or, 

 more correctly, of a metallic green hue, and 

 the legs of a slate colour up to a dark blue. 

 (6.) The tail is ample, and long in the sickle 

 feather, and the saddle feathers, like those of 

 the hackle, are superfine d,nd abundant. (7.) 

 Large size, although by no means indispen- 

 sable to success, is to be carefully sought for, 

 as, other points being equal, it would unques- 

 tionably turn the balance against a pen not 

 possessing it in favour of bigger antagonists. 

 In the Hen the comb is very large, and hangs 

 over one side of the face. 



As for the Dorking, of whatever colour, and 

 however cross-bred he may be, he is the grand 

 British fowl, supplanting all over the country 

 the old heterogeneous barn-door stock. For 

 him, squire and farmer, yea, and city poulterer, 

 stand up alike. 



In the engraving the Dorkings are on the 

 left hand and the Spanish on the right. 



