March 4, 1875. ] 



JOUBNAL OF H0RTICULTUR3 AND OOTTAGE GAKDENEB. 



187 



for exhibiting ami breeding by their long incarceration at a show 

 and the excitement it canses, and the Sunday to them is only 

 an extra day in which to come to harm. 



Thns much for the evil. Now for the reason. We believe 

 the reason why Sundays at many shows are included is simply 

 to make the dates fix-in with another show to avoid them clash- 

 ing, and so causing both shows, or one c.f them, to come to grief. 

 Exhibitors soon learn what biids are likely to beat them, and 

 when two shows occur on following days tbey think, *' Ob, Mr. 

 Soand-so will be sure to send to one, and as I do not know 

 which I shall not enter at either." Of course here we speak of 

 the general run of amateur exhibitors, and after all without 

 them the committees would often look queer when the reckon- 

 ing-up day arrives. If this is the cause, one way out of the 

 difficulty would be for committees to make their exhibitions 

 more district or county shows. We are snre this would answer 

 well. Kent has many such shows, and they do well. People 

 who would not otherwise exhibit will send to their county show, 

 and the exhibitors of the district know they have more chances 

 of prizes, and enter accordingly. 



There is no doubt but that there are too many open shows. 

 The fact of their being open to the United Kingdom does, we 

 know, keep local and county exhibitors from patronising them. 

 Whereas if the competition were restricted to the couaty or dis- 

 trict the committee could make such a choice of days as would 

 answer all purposes without the Sunday being included, and 

 their entries would be more, for they would get dozens of entries 

 from those who would otherwise not have sent one bird. We 

 merely mention this as a siiggestion, which we have long thought 

 would be one way out of the difficulty. — Amicus. 



THE EXHIBITION DORKING.— No. 10. 



BY T, C. BURSELL, 



The Dark Dorkiko. — Amongst the different breeds of Dor- 

 kings, the Dark or Coloured Dorking, on account of its superior 

 size, has always been the favourite. This variety was originally 

 called the Grey Dorking, then the Coloured Dorking, and now 

 is generally known by the name of the Dark Dorking, to dis- 

 tinguish it from the Silver-Grey variety. 



The first and most important point in a Dorking is the shape. 

 Most beginners are apt to think that five toes on each foot, and 

 a freedom from leg feathers and crest, are all that are required 

 to make a good bird. Not so; it is the peculiar shape which 

 makes the Dorking, the square, deep, and massive body, and the 

 full chest. The breast bone should be long and deep to allow 

 plenty of room for putting on flesh, as it is the Dorking's breast 

 which gives it its pre-eminence for the table. The back should 

 be very broad and flat at the shoulders, and should gradually 

 narrow to the hips ; the legs should be short and stout, and with 

 plenty of bone, as the leg is a good criterion of frame and 

 capacity for putting on flesh ; the thighs should lie close to the 

 body, and not be carried stilt-wise, as in the Cochin. The above 

 points apply equally to all Dorkings. 



I will now state what is generally considered requisite in a 

 show bird of the Dark variety, and first for the cock : Head of 

 a good size, eye large and dark in colour, earlobe red, wattles 

 long and pendulous, comb either single or double. If the comb 

 is single it must be perfectly upright, quite straight, free from 

 any excrescences at the sides, and evenly serrated with about 

 six or seven sprigs ; if rose-shaped (double) it should be close 

 and firmly fixed on the head, square in front, flat at the top with 

 the exception of numerous little sprigs, the sides straight and 

 even, and the whole comb narrowing behind into a distinct 

 point. The comb in either case should be of a good size, but 

 without tho least tendency to coarseness. Rose-combs in 

 Coloured Dorkings have lately become very scarce in the show 

 pen, and not more than a dozen pens, I think, have been seen 

 at the Crystal Palace Show for the last five years. They are 

 evidently not popular, the reasons doubtless being that they are 

 more difficult to find in perfection, t"„ u they invariably become 

 coarse and ungainly in the second year, and that they are more 

 open to being tampered with than the single combs, this latter 

 in my opinion being a serious objection. 



Hose and single-combed birds may be bred together, and a 

 proportion of both will be found in the chickens; but this plan 

 should be avoided if possible, as coarse and ugly combs are sure 

 to be the result, and neither comb will become fixed in the 

 strain. In a pen of birds for exhibition of course the combs 

 must match; if a rose-combed cock and a single-combed hen 

 were shown together certain disqualification would be the 

 result. Sometimes we find a bird with a comb something 

 between the two — that is, a single comb in the front part ex- 

 panding into two combs as it were in the middle, and joining 

 again at the back, so as to form a large hollow. These ''cup " 

 combs as they are called will not now pass muster, and are only 

 fit for the farmyard. The neck hackle should be very full, and 

 should fall naturally, the feathers not twisting over one another 

 or rising in a hump behind the neck ; tail very large and full, 

 with the feathers unusually broad and arching, and the saddle 



hackles very plentiful; legs short and perfectly straight; toes, 

 five on each foot, the fourth and fifth or hind toes being very 

 distinct, and each growing separately from the leg, the fifth toes 

 turning upwards ; the front toes long, straight, and well spread, 

 and the spurs set well inside the leg, in fact almost pointing at 

 one another. 



Formerly the colour of a Coloured Dorking cock was imma- 

 terial, but of late years, since a separate class has been made for 

 Silver-Greys, this is not the case. The hackle should be clouded 

 or striped with black, and not be white as in the Silver-Grey. 

 The saddle, too, should be clouded, and the shoulders of a dark- 

 ish tinge. The accompanying illustration (fig 48.), drawn from a 

 cockerel of my own breeding, gives a very good idea of the colour 

 required in a Dorking cock to match the Dark hens which are 

 now so fashionable. A cock will pass muster if he is not so darkly 

 striped in the neck hackle; but a Coloured Dorking cock with 

 almost white hackle and shoulders is not the proper mate either 

 for the show pen or breeding for a Dark hen, any more than a 

 Silver Duckwing Game cock is a match for a Brown Red Game 

 hen. To a critical eye one is quite as objectionable as the other. 



rig. -is.— Dtrk Dorkiag Cock. 



Occasionally we see cocks showing a good deal of red or 

 chestnut on the shoulders. These will pass with a Dark hen 

 and often breed very good pullets, but they are not so suitable 

 in my opinion as cocks only showing black and grey. It is 

 commonly thought that white in tha breast or tail is a bad 

 point. This is a mistake, and arises from confusing the colours 

 of the Dark and Silver-Grey varieties. A little white in the 

 breast of a Dark cock or on the thighs is no detriment, nor is 

 white in the tail ; in fact, I have never seen a really good Dark 

 cock without white in the sickle feather, a "gay" sickle as it 

 is termed. My first-prize cock at the Palace and first cockerel 

 at Birmingham this year both had white in the sickles, as also 

 had my second Palace and cup Birmingham cock the year 

 before, and I have yet to learn that it is any disadvantage. Of 

 course, a very white breast or tail is a disadvantage ; but it is 

 no disqualification if a bird is good in other respects, and often 

 appears after a moult in a bird which was previously quite free 

 from it. 



I have said a good deal about the white in the tail, as the 

 only results of rejecting gay-sickled birds would be to reduce 

 the size of Dorkings by making the choice of show specimens 

 much more difficult, or else to introduce the plncking-and- 

 trimming system, which is such a curse to many other breeds. 

 The colour of the legs and feet should be white ; the colour of the 

 flesh and skin of a fowl is always of the same tinge and colcnr 

 as the feet. So in the Dorking, which is essentially the table 

 fowl, it is very important that this should be white. 



I have now mentioned most of the necessary points, and to 

 assist beginners will now mention the most common defects. 

 Many Dorkings have undoubtedly been crossed seme time with 

 other breeds, such as Cochins or Malays, but such crosses can 

 nearly always be detected. Long legs and deficiency of chest 



