434 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



really good spangling had also been obtained 

 in the hen's hackle in 1870 (Fig. 123), while 

 the Mooney revival has brought back mere 

 striping more than half-way down (Fig. 123), 

 which is a mark of the old Mooney breed, but 

 as regards spangling is retrograde. 



But more than these points are involved. 

 First from the fancier's point of view, must be 

 mentioned grce7iness of the spangles : in this the 

 old Mooney was far superior, and probably its 

 matchless green lustre had most to do with the 

 revival. In the second place, Mooneys are far 



perhaps slightly smaller spangles, and probably 

 even had some effect in preference for the bigger 

 bird, which gives more space to spread them over, 

 but led to a desire for shorter spangles. For- 

 merly, though approximately round, these came 

 nearly to a point at the bottom (A, Fig. 125), 

 though often rounded there, as in the modern 

 feather B. But there has been lately a tendency 

 to cut off more and more of this bottom corner, 

 either as in C by a roughly straight line, or by 

 contracting the approximate circle into an 

 approximate oval, as in D. Each of these 



.MHHPi 



"mm 



Fig. 125. — Feathers of Silver-spangled Hamburghs. 



larger, and lay much larger eggs than the cock- 

 breeding strain. The birds will average \\ lbs. 

 to 2 lbs. heavier, and the eggs weigh about 

 eight to the pound. These points affect the 

 Hamburgh closely as a useful farmer's fowl, 

 small size of eggs being a great drawback from 

 a utility point of view. It was no doubt these 

 points which captivated Hamburgh breeders : 

 size of spangles had nothing to do with it, 

 since in that nothing has been gained, while 

 some points have been appreciably lost. 



• There are also some differences in regard to 

 the shape of the spangles. The desire to get 

 spangling more clearly apart on the bird without 

 thinning, or with less of it, has not only led to 



feathers is from a cup-winner, and it will be 

 seen that such shortening of the spangle enables 

 a larger spot to appear distinct, than when it is 

 a full circle, or fully pointed. So marked is this 

 movement that some of the best breeders rather 

 seek for what they call a " half-moon " spangle, 

 i.e. one with a flat or straight base. A distinctly 

 flattened base from a very well-known hen is 

 shown in E, Fig. 126 ; and in F is almost a half- 

 moon, the nearest which Mr. Pickles could find. 

 This is from the stepping of the wing : but he 

 writes that he would delight to see a bird with 

 every feather more or less like it. But here too 

 opinion is not unanimous. Some still prefer the 

 pointed spangle, and the extreme of such a 



