PAVLOFR 



485 



others to the front ; a third form was that the 

 larger number of the feathers fall forward over 

 the face like a fringe, with only a few stand- 

 ing up behind, and a fourth had the majority 

 falling behind like a lady's veil thrown back, 

 with a few in front. In no case do the 

 feathers cover the eyes, as is the case with our 

 Polish fowl, and not only can we trace to this 

 breed the Polish, but it is also more than prob- 

 able that the Sultans, which came to us from 

 Turkey, are sports thereform. The beards and 

 whiskers are very thick, quite covering the 

 ear-lobes. 



" In respect to this breed M. Houdekoff 

 sa}-s : ' There are in Russia some crested and 

 muffled fowls which are known under the name 

 of Pavloff. These fowls are original, and have 

 definite characters which distinguish them. 

 They have received the name " Pavloff, be- 

 cause they are bred principally at Pavlovsk in 

 the Government of Nijni-Novgorod, where, it 

 is said, they were introduced by the Empress 

 Catherine II. There are two varieties — the 

 Gold and the Silver. Another breed is called 

 the Russian Dutch, and this is similar to the 

 White-crested Black Polish, but has not so 

 large crest, and has a great deal of red in the 

 plumage. The plumage of the others is as in 

 golden and silver Spangled Hamburghs, the 

 ground-colour being golden-bay or silver- 

 white, the feathers ending in both cases with a 

 round, black spangle. The legs and feet are 

 slaty blue.' " 



Russian statements respecting the antiquity 

 of the above breeds may perhaps be received 

 with some scepticism. The photographs which 

 we have seen of Orloffs irresistibly suggest a 

 cross of Indiati Game ; and all known of the 



spread of breeds of poultry, makes it far more 

 probable that the great Polish race should have 

 spread from south to north than from north to 

 south. Mr. Brown also forwards Standards 

 published by the Russian Poultry Society of 

 four other breeds, of which he has no personal 

 knowledge, and which did not appear at the 

 St. Petersburg Exhibition of 1899. They are 

 named as Ushanki, Russian Crested, Siberian 

 Feather-footed, and Rose-combed. Except 

 that the Feather-footed seems in many 

 points to resemble the Sultan, it is difficult 

 to gather any definite ideas from these descrip- 

 tions beyond the general prevalence (except 

 in the Rose-combed) of crest and whiskers 

 among Russian fowls. 



We believe that there are one or two breeds 

 with some character in Germany, but only the 

 Lakenvelder presently described has found any 

 recognition in England. A very curious but 

 quite minor breed known in Austria is men- 

 tioned in the next chapter. The tendency in 

 Scandinavia is more and more to import from 

 southern Europe, and on the Continent gener- 

 ally to cross with stock from England ; in fact, 

 all the recent history of Continental poultry 

 goes to show the increasing value set there upon 

 that stock of English breeders, which some 

 writers have persisted in representing as so in- 

 ferior to French and Belgian races. Perhaps 

 the most likely source of anything really new 

 in the poultry world is now the southern and 

 eastern continent of Africa, and it is by no 

 means improbable that the opening up of that 

 country may ere long introduce something 

 in the way of novelty and at the same time 

 really characteristic. 



