SJLVER GREY DORKINGS. 



383 



Book of Poult)-}'. I had already then had some 

 experience in the variety, for I began while an 

 Eton boy in the sixties to breed Silver Greys, 

 not quite so distinctive in marking as they soon 

 afterwards became, but still with real difference 

 from the Coloured, or, as it was originally called, 

 the Grey Dorking. After all these years I still 

 possess a large, and, I hope, good stock of Silver 

 Greys ; and there has been no intervening year 

 in which I have not reared a considerable num- 

 ber, and exhibited some — generally successful — ■ 

 representatives of my yards at some of our 

 greatest shows. This fact, I think, speaks well 

 for the breed, for no one would be so constant 

 to a race which was not useful, or the culture of 

 which was attended with any great difficulty. 

 At large Poultry Conferences held at Reading 

 in 1899 and 1907 I read by request papers on 

 the relation of exhibition poultry to the prac- 

 tical breeding of poultry as an industry. I 

 then stated, and repeat it now, that after an 

 experience of over thirty years in pure-bred 

 Dorkings, which I continuously exhibited, 

 though never to excess, I now possess families 

 of the race more beautiful, hardy, and produc- 

 tive than those with which I started. 



" The origin of the Silver Grey variety I 

 believe to have been this, as I wrote in the 

 account of my earlier experiences. Both it and 

 the coloured or dark variety are descended from 

 the old ' Grey ' Dorking, many specimens of 

 which I can remember in my childhood as being 

 what we should now call bad Silver Grey. Some 

 fanciers bred for the lighter, some for the darker 

 shades. Exactly when the two varieties were 

 first classified as distinctive at shows, I cannot 

 trace, but I remember buying a celebrated win- 

 ner, a cock, at the Birmingham show of (I think) 

 1 88 5, which was described by its owner as a 

 ' Silvery ' bird, though it competed with cocks 

 having much darker hackles. Silver Greys for 

 a while went by the name of Lord Hill's breed.' 

 Probably they had been carefully bred, and 

 possibly the type had been produced at Hawk- 

 stone, in the days of the second Lord Hill, a 

 great exhibitor of live stock. Strange to say I 

 could find no trace of them remaining there late 

 in the seventies, though a mixed lot of Dorkings 

 were still to be seen at the Home Farm. 



"I think it was in 1S6S that I first had a 

 breeding pen of lighter, almost typical, Silver 

 Grey Dorkings. They did not then breed 

 nearly so true to markings as they have 

 done for the last twenty-five years, and 

 for various reasons I have always thought 

 that the blood of Silver Duckwing Game had 

 recently been used. Among other reasons for 

 this conclusion were, because then and for some 



years afterwards it was difficult to get Silver 

 Greys of the massive form and on the short 

 legs which had always been characteristic of the 

 Dorkings ; because some hens laid eggs of a 

 pinkish hue, like those of game hens ; and espe- 

 cially because it was for a long while difficult to 

 get them with the really white feet which were 

 almost invariably found on pure-bred Dorkings. 

 I remember well a strain most perfect in the 

 desired shade of feathering, which was invariably 

 faulty in the colour of feet. But exactly how 

 and when the Silver Grey type was produced is 

 not now a very profitable inquiry. 



" In Silver Greys which approach the desired 

 standard we have confessedly a lovely breed : 

 the hens are capital layers if only some amount 

 of liberty be given them, which 

 Qualities Dorking hens were not formerly ; 



Silver Greys, they are a fairly robust race, if care 

 be taken to select not only the 

 handsomest but the strongest birds for breed- 

 ing, such as from chickenhood have never ailed ; 

 and as to size, though of course some Dark 

 Dorkings can be found which distance them, I 

 should never myself wish to see any -finer or 

 larger fowl upon the table than a well-grown 

 Silver Grey — cockerel or pullet. Abnormal size 

 is usually accompanied by coarseness of flesh 

 and bone ; and the latter fault is quite as 

 objectionable as the former. E.xperience in 

 poultry shows that big bones are weak bones. 

 Chickens which suffer from leg weakness will 

 almost invariably be found to be large in bone. 

 How perfectly unfit a chicken with this ailment 

 is, alike for the table and for stock, every expe- 

 rienced poultry-keeper knows. I have often 

 marvelled at the ignorance of purchasers of 

 Dorkings for stock, who must have birds 'with 

 plenty of bone.' 



" That Silver Greys are in no true sense 

 a delicate race I have proof enough. For 

 twenty-one years I have reared many, with 

 little difficulty, on sticky soil (or more correctly 

 I should say on two sticky soils), usually 

 considered fatal to Dorkings. Troops of my 

 chickens often sleep in trees till Christmas, 

 and some occasionally do so with impunity 

 through the whole winter. Certainly I have 

 considerable acreage, and so change of ground ; 

 but though my place is on two soils, both 

 of them are tenacious : that of the hilly wood- 

 lands being somewhat slimy lime-stone, and 

 that of the lower, rich meadow lands in the 

 valley of the Wye, rich alluvial loam. Com- 

 mon sense teaches that chickens must be 

 treated differently on light and on heavy 

 soils. When long years ago I had Dorkings 

 on light ground and sand, all my coops were 



