355 



The cock may be very shortly described as being the same colour as a Black- 

 red cock, but where the Black-red is black the Pile is white. 



The Pile hen has comb, face, and eyes, red ; neck, golden ; breast, salmon- 

 colour ; tail, white ; rest of plumage white, with yellow or red ; legs, yellow or 

 willow. 



"Blue game " are now very scarce ; they are marked, both cocks and hens, 

 the same as Piles, except that where a Pile is white a Blue is of a dull-blue colour ; 

 legs, dark blue. 



"Cuckoo game " are still rarer, and I have seen but very few in this country ; 

 they are marked something like the breast of a Cuckoo, Cuculus canorus, from 

 whence they take their name, their entire plumage being a light bluish grey, each 

 feather being barred with bands of a darker grey, no red ; legs, in the few I have 

 seen, yellow. 



I need hardly add that the comb in all game fowls should be single, small 

 and serrated, wattles small, with red deaf ear ; their whole plumage very hard and 

 short, and their general appearance elegant, fearless, and defiant. 



There are several other varieties of pure game fowl common here, besides 

 those I have mentioned ; but as they are only very briefly alluded to in this paper 

 it is hardly worth while describing them. I may, however, add that they are 

 principally Brown-reds, Duck-wings, Blacks, Birchens, Ginger-reds, and Hennies, 

 this last variety having the tails of the cuck.s exactly the same as in the hens, 

 hence their name. In all these varieties, even in pure Black, the black metallic 

 bar on the wing is distinctly visible or traceable (except perhaps in Whites and 

 Piles) ; and this may also be said of most of the common farmyard poultry of the 

 country. In many of the Black-red cocks, especially when permitted to have a 

 wide range of ground, and wood-covers to roam over, there is often a tendency to 

 droop the tail, but I think the contrary is the case amongst birds constantly 

 exhibited or much confined. 



Being possessed of a very old breed of White game, I determined, about six- 

 teen years ago, to breed some Piles, and for this purpose I procured a very well- 

 bred Black-red game hen with willow legs, to which I put an excellent White 

 game cock, a prize-winner. From these I obtained a hatch of chickens, out of 

 which only one turned out an indiflferent Pile hen, whilst the rest were all Blues ; 

 these showed such high breeding that I kept the best of them, and, not being able 

 to obtain any other Blues in order to introduce fresh blood, I bred from brother 

 and sister. To my great astonishment they bred true Blues, very good birds, 

 with not the slightest trace of white among them, the only perceptible diflFerence 

 being that the red in both the cocks and hens so bred was more abundant than in 

 the parent Blues, and I have no doubt but that in a few more generations they 

 would have relapsed into common red fowls — that is, red cocks and brown hens, 

 with more or less of the elegance of the game fowl. On the other hand, had fresh 

 blue blood been introduced, a permanent breed of great beauty might have been 

 established. I omitted to say their legs were blue. I was unable to carry on the 

 cross further, a game-fancier having been so struck with them on seeing them 

 that he bought them at a high price. 



