YOKOHAMAS. 



495 



most hardy, almost equalling the Silkie in 

 this respect, while the chickens soon fledge and 

 wander about over the dew-coloured grass with 

 pleasure and impunity. 



" It appears to me a pity that this pleasing 

 variety should not have more admirers, for the 

 habits of the birds, whether in confinement or 

 otherwise, are interesting in the extreme. I 

 think, however, whether from in-breeding or 

 otherwise, that the Sultan is hardly as massive 

 or shapely as it was some 

 twenty-five years ago. Any- 

 how, it will be a sad pity fcr 

 the breed to be allowed to pass 

 away, and a class or two at our 

 big shows, at least, ought to 

 show us what we still have in 

 specimens of this beautiful and 

 at the same time useful 

 variety." 



The spurs of the cocks of 

 this breed are especially apt to 

 grow very long as the bird gets 

 old, curling upwards so that 

 the point enters the leg if left 

 alone. Now and then we have 

 seen a white Cochin cock in the 

 same condition, but not so 

 often as in the Sultans. When 

 this occurs the spur should be 

 partially sawn off and the point 

 rounded. 



Fowls resembling Sultans 

 in being all white, crested, 

 muffed and bearded, feather- 

 legged and vulture-hocked, 

 but differing in being distinctly 

 high on the leg, were exhibited 

 many years ago under the name 

 of Ptarmigans, but have long 

 been extinct. They were prob- 

 ably descendants of some 

 former importation, the effect 

 of long in-breeding in pro- 

 ducing weediness of build 

 being well known. 



Sultans have been given a Standard, which 

 will be found at the close of the present 

 chapter. 



YOKOHAMAS. 



About the year 1878 there appeared in 

 Germany, and a year or two later in England, 

 fowls imported from Japan, whose principal 

 peculiarity consisted in length of tail and im- 

 mense development of the cock's sickles and 

 saddle feathers. Some were exhibited as Yoko- 

 hamas, others as " Phoenix " fowls ; but careful 

 comparison of the representations published, 



and of photographs and drawings which 

 reached us direct from the Contment, failed to 

 show any distinction beyond greater or less 

 development of the peculiar plumage. The 

 long plumage was, however, unique, and a fair 

 idea of it may be gathered from our illustra- 

 tions. In a drawing of a pair of German 

 birds in our last edition one of the cock's 

 feet has five claws, a proof of the crossing' 

 which had undoubtedly taken place. 



Sultans. 



Correspondence brought out the fact that 

 such birds had been occasionally exhibited as 

 "Japanese Game" so far back as about 1872. 

 It further appeared that in the Japanese Great 

 National Museum at Tokio there were pre- 

 served two specimens of the race, in which the 

 sickle-feathers measure 13^ feet and 17 feet 

 respectively ! and a feather has been actually 

 sent to France which measured 2 metres 85 

 centimetres in length. In 1884, Mr. Gerald 

 Waller, of Twywell, imported a pen of these 

 still more extraordinary birds ; and from his 



