4?6 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



Andrews. These hens were much larger than those we 

 have at present, and were certainly coarse ; but for 

 spangling — it was perfection ! Still, I think among the 

 amalgamated strains we have as good, and that moult 

 as true. I inquired of old Jack, a very short time ago, 

 if he thought any of this "old sort" could be found 

 still ; he said he had looked the whole county through, 

 but could find none. 



The old breed was not so extinct as Mr. 

 Beldon supposed, and has undoubtedly rome 

 more largely again into the pullet strains of 

 to-day, as shown by the coarser ear-lobes and 

 greater size. But still there are differences. 

 The old Mooney hens had striped hackles ; and 

 while this has partly come back, the spangled 

 shoulder-hackle still remains from the mixed 

 blood (Figs. 123 and 124). Pullets ^till often 

 appear with white ear-lobes, though considered 

 " pure " ; the old Mooney never bred such a 

 lobe, which is another sign of " amalgamated " 

 blood. Thirdly, the intense black fluff of the 

 old Mooney hens is by no means so dark 

 now. Fourthly, the old Mooney cock was much 

 smaller in proportion to the hen, than to-day. 

 And finally, the old Mooneys had dark tail- 

 feathers, especially on the inside ; and these in 

 most winners are much clearer now. 



On the whole, in the interests of this noble 

 breed it is to be wished that some movement 

 should be made, quite apart from any question 

 of single mating. The Mooney blood (as it is 

 now) possesses size, and magnificent colour, and 

 moults true year after year ; while the heads 

 and lobes, though still coarse, are less so than 

 formerly. It seems a pity there cannot be 

 revived classes for Mooney cocks : with these 

 also to breed for exhibition, as remarked some 

 years ago by Mr. J. Roberts, head-points would 

 soon improve. Or on the other hand, much 

 more could easily be done in amalgamation, by 

 careful line-breeding. That process was aban- 

 doned too soon, because of too much breeding 

 back to the Pheasant, which lost size and colour: 

 by breeding back more to the Mooney, size and 

 colour could be retained. With the greater 

 skill breeders have now acquired, it would be 

 easy to throw in enough of the cock-breeding 

 blood (already at least half Mooney) to produce 

 practically a large full-tailed Mooney cock with 

 clear tail and good lobes, still retaining the 

 colour. There was once a real sub-variety of 

 Mooney cocks with verj^ dark, full tails, but it 

 died out through selection for the hen-cocks; 

 and the restoration of full tails while keeping 

 up the colour, which could easily be accom- 

 plished, would do much for the breed, as so 

 many hen-tailed cocks are sterile. 



At present any novice should put himself 

 in the hands of a breeder, who if applied to 



will generally supply birds with the necessary 

 relationship, and properly mated, one sex in each 

 pen being, of course, according to exhibition type. 

 As was justly pointed out by the Rev. C. D. 

 Farrar in a series of interesting letters,* Ham- 

 burgh breeders naturally get rid early of all 

 chickens of the " wrong " sex which they are 

 not likely to want ; therefore application should 

 be made early for young stock before it is gone ; 

 or else endeavour should be made to purchase 

 a breeding-pen, when breeding is over for the 

 season. Many then desire to make room, and 

 such a pen can therefore be sometimes procured 

 below its real value. 



The Gold-spangled Hamburgh is broadly 

 similar to the Silver, substituting a rich golden- 

 bay ground-colour for the white ; but there are 

 differences in the neck and in the 



S°it*1 d '•^''- "^^^ ^'"^'^ °^ ^'^'^ '^^"' ^""^ ^^^"^ 



Hamburghs. ^he true tail and the sickles and 

 coverts of the cock, instead of being 

 a clear ground-colour with spangles at the tips, 

 are of a rich and glossy solid green-black. And 

 the hackles of both sexes, and saddle and back 

 of the cock, instead of being spangled or tipped, 

 or as near this as possible, are golden bay striped 

 with glossy green-black ; even the hen's tail- 

 coverts being more a large black centre laced 

 round with bay, than really spangled. The 

 cock's wing-bow also, while now desired and 

 standardised as deep bay with dagger-shaped 

 tips to the feathers, as in the Silver, is still very 

 commonly almost a self-colour, with little spot- 

 ting at all ; but this point is improving. The 

 head points and body marking are as in Silvers, 

 but the birds as a rule are much smaller. It is 

 remarkable that the striped hackles and black 

 tails in this colour, represent a marking almost 

 similar to the old and now extinct full-tailed 

 Silver Mooney breed, referred to above, and 

 was evidently one of the very oldest types of 

 Spangled Hamburghs, and out of which the 

 hen-tailed Silver Mooney was perfected. 



There were and still are similar distinctions 

 in the strains of these birds, to those already 

 described in the case of Silvers ; but with the 

 curious difference that in the Golden it was the 

 Mooney that was the smallest breed, the cocks 

 especially, and that these were full-feathered ; 

 while the hen-feathered cocks which occurred 

 were in the larger and coarser Yorkshire breed. 

 These were fine large birds, and at one time the 

 hen-feathered birds were all the fashion, so that, 

 although there did not lack full-plumaged birds 

 of the same variety, only the hen-feathered were 

 retained. These Yorkshire Pheasants were gener- 

 * Feathered World, 1901. 



