362 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



demonstrative and careful of their broods. So where 

 do they see the " want of game " ? Those people, I am 

 sure, are unsuccessful exhibitors ; but if they would 

 follow the advice of those who are successful, there 

 would be none of this ridiculous nonsense about Game 

 deteriorating, when it is far otherwise. 



But changes of this kind, when once fairly 

 initiated, could not stop at the point reached 

 when Mr. Douglas wrote the above in 1872. 

 So soon as fanciers and judges began to look 

 specially for height and reach and colour, it was 

 inevitable that they should seek to get more of 

 these points; and they did so. The process and 

 the gradual development by it of the present 



English Game, as representing the original type, 

 and from an exhibition bird of the present day. 

 It will at once be seen that the Game fowl 

 of 1870, as here reproduced, was in a transitional 

 state of development in regard to other points 

 than height or reach. The powerful " boxing " 

 head and beak were already becoming longer 

 and thinner, though not so long and thin as they 

 have become since. The tail has become much 

 closer and more whipped together, though not 

 nearly so much so as afterwards, and still possess- 

 ing a singular beauty of proportion of its own, 

 especially in regard to the nicely " Venetianed " 

 arrangement of the sickles and side-feathers one 



Fig. 1 1 5. ^Development of Exhibition Game. 



Exhibition Game fowl are so interesting and 



instructive, that we have asked Mr. Ludlow to 



prepare in illustration of it the three sketches 



shown in Fig. 115. The centre figure 



Gradual represents the bird in its transition 



Cnange , . 1 1 t 



in Type. Stage, at the time when the above 



sentences were written, the outline 

 being an exact reproduction on a reduced scale of 

 Mr. Douglas's Black-breasted Red cock, " The 

 Earl," winner of the cup at the Crystal Palace 

 in 1S70, which formed the frontispiece to the first 

 edition of The Illustrated Book of Poultry. This 

 bird was painted in oil by another artist, as well 

 as by Mr. Ludlow ; and having seen and com- 

 pared both paintings, we select it as an absolutely 

 authentic contemporary record of the tirne. 

 The other two outlines are sketched from Old 



over the other. The neck has become more 

 slender, and the hackles shorter and more scanty, 

 though both these changes also arc carried much 

 further in the bird of 1900. It is needless to go 

 into more detail, but the diagrams themselves 

 will form an instructive and impressive object- 

 lesson concerning the profound changes which 

 fashion and breeding and judging can effect in 

 one of the oldest breeds of poultry. 



The later stages of this transformation were 

 not effected by selection alone. Even in 1872 

 the Rev. A. G. Brooke, in writing upon Malays, 

 stated the fact of that breed being used as a 

 cross to increase the size and stature of Game 

 for exhibition, and that applications were made 

 to him for birds to serve that purpose. But 

 subsequently the Malay cross was used quite 



