386 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



Merely as market poultry, the Cuckoo 

 Dorking is a good fowl enough, and its hardy 

 constitution, derived from recent crossing, en- 

 ables it to be kept in some situations where 

 the more recognised varieties would fail. If 

 it is ever bred, the same care will be needed 

 to exclude black, or red, or white feathers, 

 and to keep up a " balance " of colour, as in 

 the case of barred Rocks or any other barred 

 varieties. But many years of careful breeding 

 would be required before the plumage reached 

 this point, and the variety really is not worth 

 it, being in no respect superior to the Scotch 

 Grey. 



As a table fowl it has been very freely as- 

 serted of late that the present Dark breed is by 



Fig. 120. — Dorking Shape, 



no means so gG»)d as fifty years ago. This is 

 partly truth and partly error, and there can be 

 no doubt that some care is required in selecting 

 the better types. The points that have most 

 needed attention during the last few years 

 have been width of back and length of breast ; 

 we have seen many dead chickens at exhibitions 

 of table poultry which were quite narrow in the 

 shoulders and short in the breast-bone. To a 

 great many novices such short-breasted birds, 

 as Mr. John Martin remarked many years ago, 

 may appear round and plump, but they are 

 not good Dorkings ; as described in the 

 Standard, the body should be of " iong rectangu- 

 lar shape viewed sideways," showing a long keel, 

 as delineated in Fig. 120. This imaginary 

 rectangle should always be looked for, and is 

 the key to the true form of this breed. 



The quality of the flesh also needs attention, 

 being unmistakably "short and dry" in char- 



acter in some strains, though white enough. 

 This want of quality, again, has been said to be 

 due to Asiatic crossing, which several writers 

 have alleged to have impaired it, and to have 

 destroyed the old " whiteness " of flesh. That 

 is an error, and indeed some of the evil has 

 arisen from looking too much to mere colour of 

 flesh, instead of real quality. We have already 

 seen that the best results in table fowl are 

 attained by grafting some amount of yellow 

 blood upon white-fleshed birds ; but few people 

 seem aware that the original and purest Dorkings, 

 many years before poultry shows were even 

 thought of, were not white in flesh. In the work 

 already referred to, published in 1815, Moubray 

 writes of the White Dorking of that day, the 

 only pure breed in his opinion, that " the white is 

 probably not so pure as that of certain of the 

 dunghill fowls, nor is the colour of the flesh, 

 that inclining to a yelloiv or ivory shade." This 

 " ivory shade " it was which gave tender juiciness 

 to the original fowl, exactly as we find it to-day. 

 Experienced Sussex breeders can tell by the 

 "touch " of a live fowl what the flesh is likely to 

 be ; and this test should be freely used in select- 

 ing stock for breeding Dorkings. 



One great recommendation of the breed is 

 the early growth of the chickens. If a Dorking 

 and a Brahma are hatched in the same brood, 

 while probably both may make about the same 

 ultimate weight, the Dorking will simply run 

 away from the other during chickenhood, and 

 will also be a plump table fowl, whilst the other 

 is still the scrawny framework of one. It has 

 the property of imparting this quality in more 

 or less degree to all its crosses, which makes it so 

 valuable for crossing purposes. With the Brahma 

 it produces a very hardy chicken, that grows 

 fast and makes a fine carcase, slightly coarse- 

 looking perhaps, but juicy in flavour, and a great 

 favourite in Sussex. Other crosses are very 

 similar. That with the Houdan is not so 

 large, but very fine in flesh, and remarkable 

 for growth at the earlier ages. It will not fail to 

 be noticed that the latest table fowl produced in 

 France, and which has largely displaced older 

 breeds there — the FaveroUes — is a compound 

 of Brahma and Houdan with the English 

 Dorking. The cross with the Indian Game 

 has been already dwelt upon at great length 

 in former chapters of this book. 



Considerable difi"erence of opinion has been 

 expressed in preceding notes as to the time for 

 hatching Dorkings ; but this in truth arises 

 mainly from a mixture of utility and exhibition 

 considerations. Considered as useful stock alone, 

 there is no doubt whatever that from the end of 

 March till the end of April, or even up to early 



