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CHAPTER XXXI. 



FRENCH BREEDS OF POULTRY. 



FRENCH breeds of poultry were at one 

 time supposed to be the chief cause of 

 the large exportation of French eggs, and 

 the fine quality of French table fowls ; and 

 under the influence of this idea Mr. Gej'elin and 

 the disastrous National Poultry Company which 

 he originated, made great efforts to introduce 

 French breeds into England. The error of these 

 opinions was speedily discovered ; but after 

 setting all such exaggerated hopes aside, several 

 French races have been found distinctly valu- 

 able, and are valued in England at this day. 

 Some are of pretty old standing ; others are 

 almost of yesterday's manufacture ; and the 

 remarkable fact about nearly all of them is, that 

 except a few of the more recent, which have 

 owed their origin to stock imported from Eng- 

 land, and even including one or two of these, 

 the greater part show by their crests, or muffling, 

 or bifurcated combs, more or less of a common 

 parentage in the Polish race, and appear to owe 

 their thin skin and delicate flesh mainly to this 

 ancestry. 



The best known in this country of the French 

 breeds is the Houdan, which was briefly men- 

 tioned by Messrs. Wingfield and Johnson in The 

 Poultry Book of 1853, as the Nor- 

 Houdans. mandy fowl, and fully described by Mr. 

 Geyelin in 1865. The econom.ic value 

 of this breed is very great, as it is very hardy, 

 a quick grower in chickenhood, when well bred 

 a first-class layer of good-sized eggs, and of 

 very delicate flesh, with a tendency to fatten 

 well. The male birds are also unusually vigor- 

 ous and fertile, many of them requiring more 

 hens than would be usual with other birds of 

 the same size. 



The Houdan cock should be as large as 

 possible, the adult being 8 lbs. or 9 lbs. or more. 

 He has a good-sized crest rather inclining 

 backward, and a peculiar comb, resembling the 

 open leaves of a book with a sort of mulberry in 

 the centre, or a butterfly with open wings. This 

 is large in the cock, but rather small in the hens. 

 The wattles are moderate and rounded, beard 

 and whiskers rather full. The neck-hackle is 



full and thick, the body very long and deep in 

 keel, carried in a very sturdy manner, the tail 

 full in sickles. The legs are clean, pinky white 

 mottled with black in colour, and five-toed ; the 

 plumage black and white mixed, of no exact 

 pattern, but about equally broken in colour 

 when adult, and rather more black than white 

 when young; usually more or less approaching 

 a crescentic white marking on beetle-green 

 centre, over the breast and body. The hen has 

 a fuller, globular, and very Polish crest, with 

 much smaller comb, her weight 6 lbs. or 7 lbs. 



For the following remarks upon breeding and 

 exhibiting Houdans, their progress in England, 

 and present qualities, we were indebted to Mr. 

 S. W. Thomas, Glasfryn, Forest Each, Swan- 

 sea, whose long connection with the breed, and 

 success as an exhibitor, are well known. 



" I had my first Houdans in 1874, ^"^ from 

 then till now I have bred them regularly 

 and in large numbers. One or two of those I 

 first had were imported birds, that had done 

 some winning in France, but these were too old 

 to be prolific. My unvarying experience during 

 the many years I have kept and bred them — 

 and I have always bred for exhibition — is that 

 Houdans are very good layers of very large 

 eggs, and as table fowls are not to be beaten. 

 Of course I have always selected the finest and 

 the healthiest stock-birds. Indeed, otherwise it 

 would be quite impossible to breed up to the 

 necessary size for exhibition. 



"Since 1874 there have been some changes 

 of the fashion in colour of Houdans. Mr. Dixon 

 (then, and till he retired, the favourite and best 

 judge of Houdans) rather favoured the lighter- 

 coloured birds, about the years 1874 and 1875, 

 I think. A couple of years or so previously, 

 very dark birds were in fashion. Probably Mr. 

 Dixon's action in favouring the lighter ones 

 was to modify the tendency to the very dark 

 birds then so frequently shown. At any rate, if 

 that was the case, he succeeded, because very 

 dark birds have never been in fashion since. 

 Breeders began at once to aim at a medium, 

 well mottled, or broken colour, and at the 

 present time they have succeeded, because now 



