ANCONAS 



425 



be acknowledged, a defect, is their extreme 

 shyness and wildness. They are as wild as 

 pheasants, and ' rocket ' just like them ; and it 

 is also worth noticing that they have a distinct 

 though delicate game flavour at table. If 

 allowed, they will roost in trees as soon as they 

 can fly, and in more than one instance have 

 been only reached with a gun. They will, 

 however, follow the person who feeds them, 

 and last season I had a pullet that would pull 

 my dress to be taken up, and always expected 

 to eat her supper out of the feeding bowl as 

 I went round the pens, but if I appeared in 

 a different dress, or if a stranger was present, 

 she would fly in terror. While being prepared 

 for exhibition in training pens, they become 

 perfectly tame, but a few days in the open 

 makes them as wild as ever. It is not easy 

 to account for this shyness, but it is a very 

 marked characteristic of the real Ancona. 

 They are also great flyers, and with some par- 

 ticularly timid strains it is well to cut a wing, 

 or cover in the top of a run, when it is desired 

 to keep them apart. The cocks are great 

 fighters, and will continue their battles at every 

 opportunity, till one gives in or is killed. They 

 are also extremely polite to the hens, and at 

 meals spend so much of their time in calling 

 them and pointing out the daintiest morsels, 

 that they very often get very little for them- 

 selves, and it is desirable during the breeding 

 season to give them a good meal apart, to 

 ensue their keeping in good condition. 



" Ancona chickens grow with great rapidity, 

 and are remarkably forward as compared with 

 other breeds. They are hungry little birds, 

 and require frequent feeding, but their inde- 

 pendent habits make them very suitable for 

 bringing up in foster-mothers. At seven weeks 

 old the cockerels should be separated from 

 the pullets. The latter frequently begin to lay 

 at four months or five months old, but it is 

 well to keep them back if possible until six 

 months, when they settle down to steady egg- 

 production until the moult in the following 

 year. The moult is not a very serious busi- 

 ness ; sometimes, save for the freshness of the 

 plumage, they show very little sign of what is 

 going on ; in other cases they will be very bare 

 for awhile. It is to be noticed that they moult 

 from dark to light, the feathers being lighter 

 in the second year, and the brilliant yellow of 

 the legs tending to fade in colour as they 

 advance in age. 



" As to when Anconas first appeared in 

 England, we have no certain knowledge. 

 Many of our best informed authorities remem- 

 ber birds of the name in the early 'fifties, and 



there is a theory that they were a cross between 

 black and white Minorcas. If so, they could 

 not have been of the present type, either as 

 regards leg colour, shape, or hardiness of con- 

 stitution. There is little doubt in my mind that 

 they are a cross between the black Valdano of 

 North Italy and the common barn-door fowl 

 of that country, and an advertisement appeared 

 in the Cottage Gardener of 1854 offering" for 

 sale a pen of Anconas which had won a prize 

 at Birmingham, and had been imported direct 

 from Italy. Though the black and white are 

 the only variety known in this country, they 

 may be found white, yellow and red in Italy, 

 and golden-red feathers sometimes still appear 

 in the hackles and tail coverts of the cockerels. 

 The permanence of type is very marked, it 

 being quite easy to trace the descendants of a 

 particular hen through five or six generations, 

 and among the many hundreds of chickens 

 hatched we have never had ' a sport.' " 



Writing in IQII, Mr. Thos. Layberry, 

 hon. secretary of the Ancona Club, thus speaks 

 of the breed: 



" Many people, especially those who have 

 only a casual acquaintance with Anconas, have 

 said that the present standard has led to a 

 great deal of crossing, in order to get size 

 and the small tips on each feather which have 

 taken the place of the ugly white splashes of 

 the older birds. Much of this talk is purely 

 imaginary. Reform of any kind is objection- 

 able to certain people who call themselves 

 fanciers, and, in order to try and stop any 

 difference being made, charges are brought 

 which cannot be substantiated. There may 

 have been a few fanciers who resorted to cross- 

 ing in order to obtain the desired result 

 quickly, but to say that many adopted these 

 tactics is most unjust to the Ancona fancy 

 generally, and such statements have been one 

 of the chief reasons for the cloud which has 

 been over one of the best and most beautiful 

 breeds of poultry for some years. It is only 

 recently that they have emerged from this 

 cloud, for it is well known if a lot of mud is 

 thrown, some at any rate will stick. 



"The merits of the Ancona are too many, 

 however, to be permanently hidden, and the 

 breed is once more becoming popular. In 

 May, 191 1, Mr. Warren, of Clondalkin, contri- 

 buted to The Feathered World an analysis of 

 the recent laying competitions, which plainly 

 shows the Ancona to be as good as the best at 

 winter laying. Why, then, do these croakers 

 keep on saying that the breed has been spoilt ? 



" The only difference between the old and 



