CHAPTER XXIX. 



HAMBURGHS AND REDCAPS. 



UNDER the general name of Hamburghs 

 are now grouped a class of fowls which 

 formerly were known under different 

 names, but which share the common character- 

 istics of rather small size, rose-combs, more or 

 less white and round ear-lobes, slender, dark, 

 clean legs, absence of the incubating instinct, 

 and full sweeping tails. Looking at all that is 

 really known of their origin, that of the spotted 

 or Spangled, and of the barred or Pencilled 

 varieties, appears quite distinct ; the Pencilled 

 Hamburghs having undoubtedly reached Eng- 

 land from Holland under the name of Dutch 

 Everyday Layers, and being also known as 

 Chittiprats and Creels ; while the Spangled 

 Hamburghs emerged from Yorkshire and Lan- 

 cashire, where they had been bred for years, 

 from what stock no man knows, under the 

 names of Mooneys and Pheasant fowls ; the 

 former from the round moon-like spangles, and 

 the latter from the resemblance to pheasant- 

 marking of their more crescentic spangles. 



Yet while the Pencilled and the Spangled 

 have thus been distinct to many generations of 

 breeders, no one can look at them even to-day 

 without being struck by the idea of some com- 

 mon origin ; and for such a belief there is strong 

 evidence in chickens and old birds. Spangled 

 chickens are often, and used to be always, 

 pencilledm their chicken feathers; and when old, 

 the black spangles are very frequently sur- 

 mounted by a light tip beyond them, thus 

 returning slightly to a somewhat pencilled 

 character. On the other hand, if Pencilled 

 Hamburghs are bred too dark, the final bar 

 often becomes too wide, thus approaching in 

 some degree the character of a spangle ; and in 

 1853 The Poultry Book makes the significant 

 statement respecting Pencilled Hamburghs, that 

 " Spangled feathers mixed with the pencilled 

 are very objectionable." We have, therefore, 

 in Hamburghs several real breeds and not mere 

 varieties of fowls, of long distinct breeding, yet 

 probably of some one more remote single origin, 

 of which they still bear traces. What that 

 remote origin may have been, it is not so easy 

 to say. The old writer Aldrovandus figures a 

 fowl with a fairly strong general resemblance to 

 the Pencilled Hamburgh, and calls it Gallina 



Turcica, or the Turkish fowl ; and the apparently 

 westward drift of all original breeds may suggest 

 as possible that some such original race may 

 have thence come to Holland, and so on to 

 England ; but such speculations cannot be 

 further entered into here. 



In their different varieties of barring, pencil- 

 ling, and spangling, the gorgeous lustre of the 

 Blacks, and the matchless symmetry of all 

 varieties, Hamburghs are confessedly the most 

 beautiful of poultry. The " fancier " of any other 

 breed has also his " points," about which he is, 

 of course, quite as enthusiastic, but which the 

 man in the street very often cannot understand 

 or admire : no eye needs any education to rest 

 with delight upon the subjects of this chapter. 

 In beauty, seen and understood of all, none 

 dispute their place. 



In suitable circumstances they are also most 

 profitable fowls, being quite small eaters, but 

 most prolific layers, except perhaps the Golden 

 Spangled, which vary much : the 

 Qualities cock-breeding strains of these also 



Hamburghs. ^""^ often good layers, but the pullet- 

 breeders or Golden Mooneys are 

 usually very poor indeed. The Silver Spangled, 

 Pencilled breeds, and Blacks, have often been 

 recorded as laying 200 to 220 eggs in a year, 

 those of the Pencils being, however, decidedly 

 small. These good qualities come out best upon, 

 a free range, where Hamburghs will to a large 

 extent keep themselves, foraging all over the 

 ground early in the morning for worms and in- 

 sects, on which they depend largely for their great 

 productiveness. They are as a rule non-sitters ; 

 but the rule is not universal, as all the varieties 

 have been known, when at liberty, to occa- 

 sionally steal a nest and hatch chickens, though 

 we never heard of a case when kept in confine- 

 ment. Such occurrences are no sign at all of 

 impurity of blood. Finally, the flesh is tender 

 and delicate, though the birds are small — Silver 

 Mooney cockerels are not so very small — and 

 hence always acceptable upon the table. 



When free lange is thus at command, these 

 birds do best on the natural open-air plan, 

 roosting at night in sheds entirely open, or 

 even in trees, which hardens them just as Mr. 

 Teebay found with his Spanish. Thus treated, 



