THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



first bow to the arbitrator, but when once they 

 have learnt the business, they give Httle further 

 trouble, save picking them off their runs and 

 washing their legs and faces : their bold nature 

 makes them capital showers. On their return 

 from a show in the winter season, it is well to 

 confine them for a couple of days in a cool airy 

 room, and when put back on their runs care 

 must be taken to prevent fighting. Malays 

 require suitable baskets in which to travel, and 

 the shape I like best is a long oval. For single 

 cocks they may be 25 inches long, 25 inches 

 high, by 13 inches wide, all inside measure- 

 ments ; for hens, same width, with a fourth 

 taken off the other dimensions. 



" One word in conclusion as to judging. The 

 longer I live the more I am convinced that the 

 fate and fortunes of a breed are mainly in- 

 fluenced by the way in which it is judged. 

 During the years in which the Palace classes 

 were taken by Mr. Chas. E. Waring, the quality 

 and quantity of the birds advanced by leaps and 

 bounds. We knew what he wanted, and what 

 he wanted was the real Simon Pure. But alas ! 

 many 'all-round' judges like Mr. Brooke's 

 friend before mentioned, ' have no sympathy 

 with Malays.' I once asked dear old Mr. 

 Dixon why he had not given a certain bird a 

 card. He replied, ' Isn't he one of those beg- 

 gars with hardly any feathers? I can't stand 

 them.' At the Dairy show I have seen an 

 unnoticed cockerel sold for £2'^. Not long ago 

 at the Crystal Palace, I myself had a bird in 

 similar cardless condition. I could not attend 

 the show, but I think every Malay breeder who 

 was there, either wired or wrote to me wishing 

 to purchase, or congratulating me on having 

 produced such a warm specimen. Three weeks 

 later he was awarded Challenge Cup at the club 

 show. Such instances might be multiplied 

 almost indefinitely, and they play the mischief 

 with a grand old variety." 



Malays are better not hatched until May, 01 

 at least the very end of April, as the chickens 

 feather very slowly during the first three months, 

 and though hardy in a way, suffer from wet or 

 cold winds. It is advisable to give them 

 Parrish's Chemical Food towards the end of 

 the fifth month, as a precaution against leg- 

 weakness ; should the cockerels after all be 

 attacked by this complaint, to which all very 

 long-limbed breeds are specially liable, recourse 

 must be had to the pills mentioned above, which 

 will be found in the final chapter of this work. 



As a cross, the Malay possesses many of the 

 good qualities of the Indian Game, imparting 

 large wings and breast to other breeds in which 



Judging 

 Malays. 



these points are less developed, and also weight 

 of solid meat ; but the Indian Game has now 

 almost superseded it for this purpose, giving the 

 same advantages with less length of limb and 

 less tendency to yellowness of skin and flesh. 

 In the early days of the poultry-fancy some 

 crosses with Spanish turned out remarkably well, 

 producing a very glossy black fowl, known for a 

 few years as the " Columbian," which was a good 

 layer of large eggs : these birds died out, how- 

 ever, and any place they might have had is now 

 taken, in all but size of eggs, by the Langshan 

 and Black Orpington. 



In judging Malays, special stress should 

 always be laid upon the characteristic points 

 as above indicated, which are so striking and 

 obvious, that it is difficult to under- 

 stand how some of them can be 

 ignored as they seem still to be on 

 some occasions. They are shortly defined as 

 (i) Head and brow ; (2) Height and limb ; (3) 

 Shoulders; (4) the "Three Curves"; and (5) 

 Narrow feather. For marked deficiency in any 

 of these, nothing can really compensate. 



As already stated, it cannot be determined 

 now whether the Aseel should be regarded 

 as the ancestor of the Malay type of fowl 

 described in the foregoing section, perhaps 

 through crosses upon larger common poultry of 

 the country, or whether it has been developed 

 from it by long and assiduous care in breeding. 

 The relationship is very evident, as can be seen 

 by the plate ; and which is the aristocrat of the 

 family, in either case, is no way doubtful. The 

 Malay is tyrannical and quarrelsome, often even 

 ferocious ; but a good sharp-fighting English 

 Game-cock will always make him turn tail, 

 unless some chance happens to disable the 

 smaller bird at the outset. The Aseel is of an- 

 other character, and there can be little doubt 

 that the birds whose battles are alluded to in The 



Institutes of Menu, looo B.C., if not 

 Antiquity (-he Aseel as now known, were at 

 ^gggj least their ancestors, and that the 



present race has been either main- 

 tained or gradually evolved, with express refer- 

 ence to combat, during a period of almost three 

 thousand years. The following chapter will 

 record cock-fighting as practised very widely in 

 past ages amongst civilised races, to an extent 

 that may come as a surprise to many ; but in 

 India it has from time immemorial been pursued 

 with a universality and a passion that elsewhere 

 had no parallel. The result of all this is mainly 

 represented to-day by the Aseel. 



