382 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



meant by a yellow-legged fowl, but a slight and 

 undefinable shade which many years' critical 

 observation have led us to associate with the 

 kind of black-red colour shown in the bird's 

 plumage, and which is generally, as in certain 

 strains of Game, associated with delicate and 

 tender flesh. 



Another beautiful and well-marked variety 

 of Dorking is that known as Silver-grey, which 



has separate classes at nearly all 

 Silver-grey important shows. In great measure 

 Dorkings. these birds were an offshoot of 



the preceding, at a time when the 

 Coloured Dorking was often really a Grey breed, 





Fig. 119. — Feathers of Silver-grey Dorking Hen 



from which a lighter grey could be selected. 

 But in addition to this process of selection, it is 

 recorded in several quarters that the Silver- 

 greys thus selected from the Dorkings were also 

 crossed with Silver Duckwing Game of Lord 

 Hill's breed, in order to fix the beautiful colour 

 of the hens ; and the effects of this cross were 

 to be seen in a slimmer build and different 

 carriage of the shoulders. Another result of the 

 Duckwing cross was a somewhat too silvery 

 colour, leading to a great tendency to splashes 

 of white on the cock's breast and thighs. Both 

 these defects have long since been overcome, and 

 Silver-greys are often now amongst the most 



typical of Dorkings, and very nearly if not quite 

 equal in weight to the Dark variety. ^ 



The head of the Silver-grey cock should be 

 silvery white, the neck-hackle of the same 

 colour, perfectly free from any tinge of straw- 

 colour, but may be (and generally is) streaked 

 with grey in the lower feathers falling on the 

 shoulders. The back and saddle silvery white, 

 shoulders and wing-bow also clear white ; wing- 

 bar green-black ; wing-bay white with a black 

 upper edge ; breast and under-parts and thighs 

 jet-black, without any mottling or grizzling, 

 except that a little on the thighs is tolerated in 

 old birds ; tail glossy black, with sound broad 

 sickles. The white parts should have no tinge 

 of straw, and there should 

 be no signs of brown or 

 chestnut bordering the 

 wing-bar or other margins 

 of the black plumage. 



The hen's hackle is 

 also silvery white on the 

 head, but lower it be- 

 comes striped with black, 

 often with a little longi- 

 tudinal pencilling. The 

 breast is a rich robin- 

 red or salmon-red, shad- 

 ing off ashy colour on the 

 thighs. The body and 

 wings are a silvery grey 

 ground colour, minutely 

 pencilled over with dark 

 grey, free from black 

 splashes or reddish tinge, 

 and each feather showing 

 the white shaft, but not 

 obtrusively : tail rather 

 darker. The general 

 effect varies in different 

 birds from a bright silver- 

 grey to a softer duller 

 grey, but in any case 

 should be grey. The 

 silvery greys have usually lighter salmon 

 breasts, and are specially apt to breed cock- 

 erels with white spots or grizzling on the 

 breast. The feathers of a Silver-grey hen are 

 shown in Fig. 119. 



Very few have bred one variety continuously 

 for so many years or with so much success as 

 Silver Grey Dorkings were bred by the late 

 Mr. Oswald E. Cresswell, J. P., of Morney 

 Cross, Hereford, who kindly contributed the 

 following notes : — 



"It is considerably over a quarter of a cen- 

 tury since I wrote some notes on Silver Grey 

 Dorkings for the first edition of the Illustrated 



