AMERICAN LANGSHANS. 



287 



also the ideas of those in England who look 

 askance at those specimens of the Langshan 

 that conform to the type required in the 

 Langshan Society's standard of excellence. As 

 a matter of fact, there is not such great dis- 

 similarity between the two types as is popularly 

 supposed, the only real differences being found 

 in the weights, length of back and shanks, 

 carriage of tail, and character of plumage ; 

 and a glance at the standards reveals the fact 

 that they are compiled on very much the same 

 lines. A comparison of the illustrations on 

 pages 280, 282, on this page, and in the plate, 

 will amply bear out our remarks upon the 

 character and plasticity of the original stock. 



American Langshans, 1898. 



That plasticity is in fact amply sufficient 

 to account for all the modifications of type 

 which have been here reviewed, without any 

 offensive imputations of a " mongrelism " which 

 is at most doubtful, and quite unnecessary 

 to suppose. Not only have we the assurance 

 of gentlemen, as above, that their birds have 

 been modified in type simply by the well- 

 known processes of selection, and not only 

 was the process carried at least half-way by 

 the very people who now severely condemn 

 its result when merely carried somewhat far- 

 ther, but the converse still holds good : birds 



can still be selected from almost any yard 

 which would breed the American ideal as 

 here illustrated. So lately as the spring of 

 1900, Mr. F. O. Piercy informed us he was 

 able to send out to his brother in Canada a 

 pen of Langshans, bred from cup-winners at 

 the Palace and Society shows, but selected 

 to suit the American standard, of which the 

 cockerel was passed for insufficient feather on 

 outer toes, but the females took the highest 

 honours possible, and one of them in addition 

 the medal for the highest scored bird in the 

 show. These birds, in their new quar- 

 ters, would breed produce according to 

 both English and American ideals. 



White Langshans appear to have 

 originated with Mr. R. J. Pope, of 

 Barcombe, near Lewes, who was at 

 the time (1886-89) a 

 White very successful exhibitor 



Langshans. ;„ the Black Langshan 

 classes. The propensity 

 of the original Black Langshan to 

 produce white feathers and occasion- 

 ally white splashes, has been already 

 noticed ; and one of these mis-marked 

 birds in Mr. Pope's yard produced 

 one or two pure white pullets. These 

 were bred with one of the black 

 cocks, and by carefully breeding 

 selections from their produce, a White 

 variety was established, so that at 

 the time of a visit we paid to Bar- 

 combe in 1 888, a flock of about seventy 

 white birds was in existence. This 

 flock is the origin of the White Lang- 

 shans ; but the well-known strain of 

 Mr. Will Smith was, we believe, 

 originated quite independently in 

 1896 or 1897 by sports from Black 

 Langshans procured from Mr. Stirz- 

 aker, a well-known breeder of the 

 Black variety. The white is not an 

 " albino," birds or animals of that 

 curious type having pink eyes, which the White 

 Langshan has not ; it is a white variety, as in 

 the case of Cochins, derived from sports whose 

 history we have shortly given. The variety 

 gives an interesting incidental proof of what 

 we have stated above concerning the intimate 

 connection between colour of plumage and 

 colour of shanks ; the scales on the latter having 

 become a pale blue-grey, and the crimson 

 between them assumed a paler pink shade, 

 though distinct from that of the white Dorking. 

 A curious thing is that when these white birds 

 sported back to black, as they often did at first, 



