130 French and Various. 



are easily reared, and grow quickly. They are excellent 

 layers of very large white eggs, but do not lay well in 

 winter, unless under very favourable circumstances, and 

 resemble the Spanish in the size and number of their eggs, 

 and the time and duration of laying. Their flesh is excel- 

 lent, juicy, and resembles that of the Game fowl, and the 

 skin white and transparent, but the legs are dark. This 

 breed is larger and has more style than the Creve Coeur, and 

 is better adapted to our climate ; but the fowls lack consti- 

 tution, particularly the cocks, and are very liable to leg 

 weakness and disease of the knee-joint, and when they get 

 out of condition seldom recover. They are found in the 

 north of France, but are not common even there. 



The HouDAN has the size, deep compact body, short legs, 

 and fifth toe of the Dorking. They are generally white, 

 some having black spots as large as a shilling, are bearded, 

 and should have good top-knots of black and white fea- 

 thers, falling backwards like a lark's crest ; and the 

 remarkable comb is thus described by M. Jacque : 

 " Triple, transversal in the direction of the beak, composed 

 of two flattened spikes, of long and rectangular form, 

 opening from right to left, like two leaves of a book ; 

 thick, fleshy, and variegated at the edges. A third spike 

 grows between these two, having somewhat the shape of an 

 irregular strawberry, and the size of a long nut. Another, 

 quite detached from the others, about the size of a pea, 

 should show between the nostrils, above the beak." 



Mr. F. H. Schroder, of the National Poultry Company, 

 considered that this surpassed all the French breeds, com- 

 bining the size, shape, and qualit}" of flesh of the Dorking 

 with earlier maturity ; prolific laying of good-sized eggs, 

 which are nearly always fertile, and on this point the oppo- 

 site of the Dorking ; and early and rapid feathering in the 

 chickens, which are, notwithstanding, hardier than any 

 breeds except the Cochin and Brahma. They are very 

 hardy, never sick, and will tlirive in a small space. They 

 are smaller than the Creve Coeur or La Fleche, but well 

 shaped and plump ; and for combining size and quality of 

 flesh with quantity and size of eggs nothing can surpass them. 



