376 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



records in the same work, how from the same 

 stock he bred different colours, and about half 

 double or rose combs, though the parents were 

 single-combed birds ; while the late Mr. John 

 Baily also writes that in Coloured Dorkings 

 "almost every colour may be produced from the 

 same parents." It is also stated in the same 

 work that as many birds occurred without the 

 fifth claw, as with that distinctive member. All 

 the evidence, of many breeders, unites to show 

 that the Coloured Dorking was produced by 

 crossing a really five-toed Dorking race, prob- 

 ably the rose-combed White, but possibly in 

 some cases the single-combed Red, upon the 

 large dark Surrey or Sussex fowls. These earlier 

 birds were as a rule of a grey speckled colour, 

 from which the name Grey Dorking was derived. 

 But other crosses have since taken place. In 

 the tenth and enlarged edition of Moubray pub- 

 lished in 1854, Mr. Meall states that to his 



personal knowledge many of the 

 Change in black-breasted Dorkings were pro- 

 Daxk duced by crossing with Spanish 



Dorkings. fowls, both in Sussex and around 



Wokingham, and which cross had 

 imparted the very large upright comb, and a 

 tendency to white ear-lobes, besides a somewhat 

 hollow or high-carried breast. There can be 

 little doubt that the immense combs now seen 

 on many cocks are due to this cross. Finally, 

 in 1857 the size of the breed was increased by at 

 least two pounds per bird, the colour modified, 

 and the constitution improved, by a cross made 

 by the late Mr. John Douglas, with a bird which 

 had come from India, and which has there- 

 fore been stated to have been of " Malay " 

 type, but quite erroneously. The bird in 

 question was neither long-legged, nor yellow- 

 legged, nor low-tailed : in fact, from the 

 description following, while he may have 

 had some grey Chittagong character about him, 

 it certainly contained far more of Dorking type 

 than usual, and some of these Chittagong birds 

 which we have seen evidently possessed a great 

 deal. The following is the account written for 

 us by Mr. Douglas himself, in 1872, of this now 

 historic cross, to which so much of the present 

 Dorking character is due : — 



Dorkings in 1857 were considered of a good show 

 weight Lf the cooks attained nine pounds and a half and the 

 hens seven pounds and a half. The hens were then 

 either of a grey or brown ruddy colour, and the cocks 

 always showed a great deal of white in the tail, with 

 breasts inclined to be speckled of various colours ; not 

 any standard colour, as shown at the present day. 



The first and only time I made a cross was with a 

 dark grey cock, which had come from India, weighing 

 thirteen pounds. This bird was a model single- 

 combed Dorking in aU but the fifth toe, which was 



absent ; and it is quite wrong to say he was of the 

 Malayan type, for there was not the least type of Malay 

 about him : he had .white legs, and all the characters of 

 a Dorking, except, as before stated, the fifth toe. I 

 firmly believe he must have been a cross from a bird of 

 the Dorking tribe taken out before to India, with what 

 cross I could not say, but certainly not the Malay. I 

 put to this bird seven hens eighteen months old, and the 

 produce turned out far beyond my expectations — all 

 were decidedly of the Dorking type, and very few but 

 what had the Dorking toe. Some of the pullets when 

 seven months old weighed nine pounds, and the 

 cockerels ten pounds and a half ; while at eighteen 

 months several hens reached ten pounds and upwards, 

 cocks coming up to thirteen pounds ; and one bird in 

 particular, when two years and six months old, weighed 

 as much as fourteen pounds and a half, which was the 

 heaviest weight I ever obtained in the Dorking fowl. 



So much for the first cross. The following season I 

 mated one of the cockerels thus produced to thirteen of 

 the old hens, and the imported cock to seven of his own 

 cross-bred pullets. From the cockerel with the hens I 

 chiefly obtained my uniformity of colour in the pullets, 

 and also my very dark cockerels ; but I also found I 

 had obtained a much stronger constitution. From this 

 year's breeding many yards obtained the new blood, 

 both by eggs and birds bought of me ; and from that 

 date (185S) we began to find at our shows a steadily in- 

 creasing number of the Dark Greys, and heavier weights 

 began to be shown. 



After the second year I lost the imported cock, and 

 then had to work with the two yards I had formed, but 

 which I found no difficulty in doing. The stronger con- 

 stitution thus introduced continues to the present time, 

 breeding also up to this very day far more uniformity 

 in colour. Whole yards of Dorkings may now be found 

 which run as true to colour as Brahmas or Cochins ; 

 whereas before this time almost every hen was different 

 in colour, so much so that out of a hundred hens in a 

 yard it was a difficult matter to get three out of the lot 

 to match. We have also thus obtained longer bodies, 

 greater width in shoulders, more length of breast, and 

 greater depth in the keel or breastbone, where a pro- 

 portionately greater amount of flesh can of course be 

 put upon the birds ; in fact the fowl is now heavier- 

 fleshed all over, with no more addition of offal in 

 proportion. 



There is yet a little to add before we can 

 consider complete even this briefest outline of 

 Dark Dorking history. The breed as Mr. 

 Douglas left it was darker than before, the 

 "speckle" being gone, and the cocks mostly 

 black-breasted. But fanciers and judges made 

 it by their selection darker still, until the feathers 

 over the hen's wings and back became practically 

 black, with only the shaft of the feather showing 

 white, more and more black coming into the 

 cock's hackles. With this extremely dark 

 colour came in, unfortunately, more or less of 

 sooty feet and legs. This blemish led at one 

 time to much railing against the cross which Mr. 

 Douglas had made, as being the cause of the 

 sooty feet ; but for this charge there was 

 no real foundation. The bird he had used 

 was quite white in the feet ; and for years 

 no dark feet had appeared in consequence. As 



