304 



CHAPTER XIX. 



PLYMOUTH ROCKS. 



THIS breed is of American origin, and is 

 still occasionally stated to have been first 

 formed by Dr. Bennett in 1850, but is not 

 in reality nearly so old, except so far as he did 

 undoubtedly give that 7iaine to one of his many 

 curious productions. In his American Poultry 

 Book of 1851 he gives the following remarkable 

 account of these old Plymouth Rocks : " I have 

 given this name to a very extra breed of fowls 

 which I produced by crossing a Cochin China 

 cockerel with a hen that was herself a cross 

 between the fawn-coloured Dorking, the great 

 Malay, and the Wild Indian. Her weight is 

 6 lbs. 7 oz. The Plymouth Rock fowl, then, is 

 in reality one-half Cochin China, one-fourth 

 fawn-coloured Dorking, one-eighth great Malay, 

 and one-eighth Wild Indian. Their plumage is 

 rich and variegated, the cocks usually red and 

 speckled, and the pullets darkish brown. They 

 are very fine-fleshed, and early fit for the table. 

 Their legs are very large, and usually blue or 

 green, but occasionally yellow or white, generally 

 having five toes upon each foot ; some have the 

 legs feathered, but this is not usual." Of course 

 a " breed " such as this, with legs feathered or 

 clean, four-toed or five-toed, and of all the 

 colours in a pack of cards, was too " extra " for 

 any such common world as this, and inevitably 

 died out by sheer disintegration of materials 

 even more heterogeneous than were alleged of 

 other breeds recently mentioned, but which 

 had at least strains in their blood predominant 

 enough to save them. 



For years nothing more was heard about 

 Plymouth Rocks ; and in the New York 

 Poultry Bulletin, the first American poultry 

 periodical ever published, during its 

 Origin of fij-gt two years such a fowl was never 

 Rc^s." &v^x\ named. Their first mention 



in that paper was about 1870; and 

 in response to a direct inquiry of our own, we 

 received the first direct information about them 

 in a letter from Mr. W. Simpson dated August 12, 

 1 87 1, in which he states that their plumage 

 was " Dominique " (the American term for blue 

 barred or " cuckoo " colour), that they had been 

 produced by crossing the native Dominique or 



comiuon cuckoo fowl with Asiatics, and up to 

 that time did not breed very true, while their 

 eggs were all colours and sizes. Everything 

 points to a new production about that time, 

 from quite recent crosses, and there is not the 

 slightest doubt that the present Plymouth Rock, 

 of totally different colour from Dr. Bennett's old 

 creation, had its origin about this time and in 

 this general way. The first ever seen in 

 England were sent over by Mr. W. Simpson 

 in 1872, and took honours at Birmingham that 

 year in the class for Any Other Variety ; since 

 which time they have rapidly grown in numbers 

 and popularity, all the original stock having 

 come to us from across the Atlantic. 



Further investigation in America has made 

 it pretty clear that the modern Plymouth Rock 

 had more than one origin, and that the claims 

 of various breeders, such as Mr. Spaulding, Mr. 

 Drake, Mr. Upham, Mr. Giles, and Mr. Pitman, 

 to have produced ancestors of the present birds, 

 were all more or less well founded. Mr. I. K. 

 Felch, whose long memory makes him a good 

 authority, has traced various crosses made by 

 different breeders, including the following: (i) 

 Spanish on White Cochin, top-crossed by 

 Dominique ; (2) Dominique on Buff Cochin 

 hens ; (3) White Birmingham (supposed to be 

 an English fowl, but what, no one can tell) on 

 Black Java, the produce coming as white, black, 

 and Dominique, and the Dominiques alone being 

 bred together ; (4) the same produce top-crossed 

 with Dominique ; (5) Black Java and Dominique ; 

 (6) some of the above crossed with Brahma. 

 This last cross distinguished the Drake strain ; 

 and it has been stated by some that the amal- 

 gamation or breeding together about 1869 of 

 this Brahma-crossed strain, with that of another 

 strain also containing Black Java blood, pro- 

 duced the final improvement and stamp which 

 gave the new Plymouth Rock its growing popu- 

 larity from 1870 onward. 



This origin of the fowl will explain the chief 

 difficulties in breeding barred Rocks. The 

 colour itself is not a natural primary one, but 

 the produce of white with either black or very 

 dark colour. Such colours, mated together, 



