FEET AND COMBS OF DORKINGS. 



387 



May, is the best period to get chicks out. By not 

 breeding earlier, constitution is kept up, and the 

 early growth of the chickens makes even iVIay 

 birds quite ready for the great shows of the 

 year. Chickens hatched at this season thrive 

 well and feather well, and when bred from 

 parents not fagged by too much showing or 

 exhausted by winter breeding, would not strike 

 anyone as more delicate than usual, and are 

 very often quite good layers. We men- 

 tion laying in this connection, because it is inti- 

 mately bound up with it, for the Dorking has an 

 undoubted weakness in regard to over-exhibition. 

 As already intimated by Mr. Goodfellow above, 

 the males will not stand much showing with im- 

 punity; beyond averyfew times seriously impairs 

 their breeding power. Mr. Smyth also, it will 

 be noticed, expresses his strong preference for 

 males that have been but little exhibited ; and 

 at the Poultry Conference of 1S99 Mr. Cress- 

 well, in reporting upon the great gain in hardi- 

 ness which he had found, laid stress upon the 

 fact that he was only an exhibitor at a few of 

 the great shows of the year. Such remarks 

 should be well considered. 



It will have been gathered from this, that 

 Dorkings are not adapted for close confinement. 

 On the smallest runs which can be kept in grass, 

 they will do very well, but it is on free range 

 that their good qualities come out best. In 

 small suburban runs they often sicken and pine 

 away. A friend once reported to us that he 

 had kept them in health in quite a small run — 

 about 20 by 10 feet we think, with a shed along 

 one end — by perfect cleanliness and ample green 

 food. But his idea of cleanliness was very 

 different from that which satisfies nine people 

 out of ten in such circumstances, and to such 

 scrupulousness his success was probably due. 



In one respect modern breeders have made 

 great improvement in the Dorking, and more 

 especially in the Dark variety. In the earlier 

 stages of the breed, the fifth toe was not only 

 very uncertain, but liable to all sorts of deform- 

 ities and gouty swellings, and " bumble-foot " 

 was but too well known as a constant trouble ; 

 we can remember seeing one or the other in 

 almost half of the pens. Breeders seem to have 

 thought that malformed and swelled toes and 

 bumble-foot were natural defects, which simply 

 had to be endured and made the best of With 

 more knowledge they have acted differently ; 

 and by penalising such birds more heavily in the 

 show-pen, and discarding them from the breed- 

 ing-pen, both evils have now been so nearly 

 eradicated that it has become rather rare to see 

 either malformed toes or a case of bumble-foot 

 at a first-class exhibition. The greatest care 



should be taken to select for breeding none but 

 birds with sound and perfectly-formed feet, the 

 extra toe pointing well upwards. 



In regard to combs, the rose or single comb 

 is optional in the Dark variety only, while rose 

 combs are demanded in Whites and Cuckoos, 

 and single combs in Silver Greys. During the 

 early days of exhibition one comb was as 

 common as the other in Darks, with a prefer- 

 ence on the whole for rose, as more like the 

 original White breed ; but a great many of the 

 rose-combed birds were very coarse about the 

 head, and single combs grew in favour, till in 

 1890-5 the rose-comb had practically disap- 

 peared. Since then there has been some revival 

 of this form of comb, Mr. A. C. Major having 

 exhibited some very fine specimens. It is to 

 be regretted that many single-combed cocks 

 have had such enormous, beefy, overgrown 

 combs as to be practically sterile, and requiring 

 to be dubbed before they are any use for breed- 

 ing. There can be little doubt that this 

 monstrosity was introduced by the Spanish 

 cross already referred to ; for the original 

 single-combed Dorking was by no means a 

 heavy-combed bird. It is to be hoped that 

 breeders and judges will set their faces against 

 such undue development, and strive for the 

 " moderately large " combs laid down in the 

 Standard. In a heavy breed like this such a 

 source of weakness is especially prejudicial. 



In the earlier days of poultry exhibition the 

 Grey or Coloured Dorking was judged without 

 any reference to colour or plumage, except that 

 the three hens or pullets then 

 Dorkinfs shown together were expected to 



make some fair match with each 

 other. This led to many specimens being 

 exhibited over-fat. With the introduction of 

 the very dark plumage by Mr. Douglas' 

 Asiatic cross, there came in more and more pre- 

 ference for that colour, birds so marked being 

 as a rule larger and finer than those of other 

 colours. At the present day reaction from the 

 older idea has gone so far, that the Standard 

 now only recognises the very dark, " almost 

 black " colour of plumage. This is distinctly 

 to be regretted, in the interest not only of white 

 feet, but of a somewhat more medium though 

 still dark colour, which is very often shown 

 with success, and certainly neither is nor ought 

 to be penalised by any deduction. 



The shape or symmetry of the fowl should 

 be the same in all varieties. For many years 

 the White has been as a rule more tall and 

 reachy than the others ; but this has gradually 

 become modified, and Mr. Ludlow's ideal is 



